Meteor storm may set night sky ablaze

Last November, dozens of Utahns braved the cold night and reaped a rich reward, an awesome display of a barrage of shooting stars during the annual Leonid meteor shower.

On Tuesday, many are betting on a return performance, based on predictions of astronomers who calculate Earth's orbit and the configuration of a stream of debris in space that causes the shower.

Meteors are the death fires of tiny bits of dust and rock that erupt from comets when they swing toward the sun. Sunlight heats up the "dirty snowballs," and they spew long tails. Long after the comets head back toward the distant reaches of space beyond all the planets, the trail of debris remains, like the wake of a ship.

This year's train of grit is believed to have formed when Comet Tempel-Tuttle's long, looping orbit brought it into our region of the solar system in 1866. After loafing around in space for 136 years, the grains of rock and dust will get a surprise wake-up.

Meteors hit Earth's atmosphere and rip along at speeds up to 160,000 miles an hour, creating so much friction that they burn up. Some of the blazing light is from the meteor itself, says the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and some from the emissions of shocked air along the meteor's path.

Larger meteors can create bright flashes, persisting trails of light and even drifting smoke trails. If a particle should hit ground, something not known to happen in this type of meteor shower, it would become a meteorite.

The shower should peak before dawn Tuesday, and it could be nearly as great as in 2001. Chances are it could amount to not merely a meteor shower but what astronomers term a meteor storm.

"Unlike regular meteor showers that produce maybe 100 meteors per hour, this year's Leonids could produce 10 times that many and maybe even more," Patrick Wiggins, the NASA solar system ambassador for Utah, said in a press release.

Many astronomers say the best time to look will be between 2 and 5 a.m. on Tuesday, with the greatest number of "shooting stars" between 3 and 4 a.m., he noted.

According to Wiggins, meteor watchers should not use telescopes or binoculars because they only reduce the area under observation. The meteors will be flaring across the heavens here, there and elsewhere, and they will be easier to spot with an unobstructed view.

"Travel to a site away from urban light pollution, set up a lawn chair and just lay back and look up," he added.