Leonid Meteor Shower

By: Corey Potvin

People in the Middle East and Europe were treated to a spectacular astronomical display Wednesday (11-17-99) night, as meteors blazed across the skies by the thousands, courtesy of the Leonid meteor shower. The Leonids are caused when the Temple-Tuttle comet makes its annual close pass near the earth. As the comet approaches the sun, dust and ice boil off of its surface and enter the earth's atmosphere. As these particles hurtle through the atmosphere, they compress and superheat the air ahead of them, creating vivid trails of color and light.

Every 33 years, the Leonids peak in intensity as Temple-Tuttle makes its closest pass. This year was one of those years. Thousands of meteors per hour lit up the sky in areas where the show wasn't diminished by geographic location, city lights, weather, or the moon. The East Coast, unfortunately, was merely on the edge of the area of significant meteor activity. Residents of Maine only saw between 10 and 20 meteors in an hour. But even this was enough to put on an exciting display, as what meteors did fall often had very long, colorful tails the likes of which one rarely gets to see outside of a meteor shower event.

This year, as expected, fell short of the 1853 Leonid display, which was so intense that people in Europe feared the world was coming to an end. One observer said the meteors that night were nearly as numerous as snowflakes in a snowstorm. Such events are very, very rare. I would love to be alive when the next such display takes place.