How about this?
A Hail of Mail on Leonids
In a fit of wishful thinking, last Friday's skyreport.com
pegged the expected peak of the Nov. 17 Leonid meteor
storm at 2 a.m., Eastern Time, which would put top
viewing hours in the United States.
Seems, however, that 2 p.m. Eastern Time is the more
popular estimate for when the most meteors will pass
through the earth's atmosphere. So those of you who told
us you plan to rush out to the desert skies: Don't. You
could end up with nothing more than a sunburn.
Still our experts say that early Tuesday morning could
provide some spectacular viewing in the United States,
even if the peak storm occurs over China and Japan as
expected. And then, of course, the experts admit they
could be wrong: Last time the Leonids passed by, in
1966, the those-in-the-know goofed by several thousand
miles as the fire storm of meteors expected to blaze
across Europe's night skies instead appeared over
North America.
As for the odds of a meteor from the storm damaging a
satellite: To date, only one bird has been destroyed
during a shower. That was the European Space Agency's
Olympus, which was hit in 1993, according to NASA. For
serious damage from the Leonids, we've now heard
estimates ranging from one in four to one in 100,000.
Think we'll stick with our original one in 100.
For the latest news on the Leonids keep your eye on
skyreport.com's Leonid Watch fact page at:
skyreport.com |
