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Info on the Leonid meteor stormWeek of November 2, 1998
NEW: see the Leonids LIVE!
I have big news this week! First off, I was the guest 'expert' on the Discovery Channel website's weekly webcast called 'Science Live!'. Anyone with web access can participate, though you need RealAudio to listen in. The topic was the 1998 Leonid meteor shower on November 17th. The Discovery Online site archives the webcasts, so you can still listen to it. You can get to it directly from the Discovery Online website or from the Real Broadcast Network. Every year, there are several meteor showers that occur at regular times; the Perseids in August are perhaps the best example. Comets, which are basically giant snowballs packed with dust, gravel and ice, melt a bit when they approach the Sun. Like a gravel truck that has debris flying off it on a road, comets fling off bits of themselves as they round the Sun. Every year, if the Earth passes through the comet's orbit, we get a shower of meteors when these bits of debris burn up in our atmosphere. The Leonids are one such shower. They peak around November 17th every year. This year may be very special though: the parent comet, named Temple-Tuttle after its discoverers, has just rounded the Sun and is heading back out to deep space. It orbits the Sun every 33.2 years, and in past years when the Earth passes through its debris after the comet has recently passed, the meteor shower turns into a brief storm, sometimes pelting the Earth with an incredible 100,000 meteors per hour as seen by some observers! This dense stream of gravel is very narrow, and the Earth typically plows through it in an hour or so, so only a few places on the Earth get the Big Show.
The thing to do is simply go outside and look. Showers are usually best after local midnight, but in this case you should go out as soon as it gets dark. You can make a night of it under the stars if it's clear; get a lawn chair and a blanket (it can get cold at night, even if November is summer for you!) and simply lay back. You don't need a telescope or binoculars, since meteors can zip anywhere in the sky. A dark site is best, but Leonids are known for fast bright meteors, so even a bright sky is not so bad. I plan on going to a site about 30 or 40 kilometers from the nearest big city, so we can see lots of shooting stars. My description here is brief, but there are many sites on the web with more info about meteors in general and the Leonids specifically. Each of these websites links to many others, so if you can get through to any of them you'll have access to lots of info.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
made a press release, which you can
see in its entirety on the Sky and Telescope
website. Here is the part of the release pertinent to the webcasts,
which I have taken from the Sky and Telescope site and modified slightly:
1:Live from Saji Observatory, Tottori prefecture:
http://www.infosakyu.ne.jp/sajinet/live/1998e.htm
http://www.tori.chugoku.mbc.ntt.co.jp/sv/index-e.html
2:Live from "Live!
Leonids 98", including Mt. Fuji, Hakkai-san, and Misato Observatory, Wakayama
Prefecture.
http://leonids.net/live/index.html
3:Live from Mt.Yatsugatake,
Yamanasi-pref. Japan
http://www.nifty.ne.jp/forum/fspace/special/livecam_e.htm
4:Milkyway Live from
Agawa village, Kochi Prefecture.
http://www.media-i.com/www/Milkyway/index.html
All these efforts
are performed by so-called public astronomical observatories, which have
been built by local governments as a part of scientific education for
the general public. There are more than 200 observatories, and most of
them have relatively large telescopes. Main purpose of these observatories
is public service in educational aspects of astronomy and related sciences.
We believe that these observatories are playing an important role in education
on astronomy. Our Public Relation Center is supporting these observatories
by supplying many kinds of information on astronomy, and participates
in cooperative programs like these events.
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
CONTACT:
Directly to each web
site administrator, or Dr.Jun-ichi Watanabewatanabe@pub.mtk.nao.ac.jp
Public
Information Office, Public Relation Center, National Astronomical Observatory,
Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181, JapanPhone:+81-422-34-3638 FAX:+81-422-34-3810
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