Meteor Shower Could Be Once-in-a-Lifetime Dazzler

Southern California stargazers are preparing for an extraordinary meteor shower early Sunday that may not be equaled until the end of this century.

The annual Leonid meteor display is expected to peak between 1 and 3 a.m., with the best viewing between 1:40 and 2:40 a.m.

“Just look up in the sky,” is the advice of John Mosley, program supervisor at the Griffith Observatory. “Set your alarm for a quarter to 2, go outside and get really comfortable. Don’t kick yourself the next day for missing this.”

The Leonid meteor shower occurs every year in mid-November, when Earth passes through dust trails left in space by prior passages of the Tempel-Tuttle Comet, which enters the inner solar system every 33 years.

But scientists calculate that this year the Earth will traverse especially concentrated patches of the debris deposited during the comet’s passage in 1767.

Another big shower is expected next year, but it will be obscured to Southland viewers by the light of a full moon. Early Sunday, there will be no moonlight. Mostly clear skies away from a possibly foggy coast are predicted.

Viewers not distracted by the lights of cities should be able to see as many as 70 meteors per minute at the height of the shower. Six to 20 of those should be quite bright, astronomers said.

Those who drive to the high desert will have the best view, but even people watching from dark corners of Los Angeles backyards should be able to see quite a few.

The meteors emanate from the direction of the constellation Leo, but will appear all over the sky. The best way to view them is with the naked eye.

The Los Angeles area chapter of Sidewalk Astronomers is planning to set up a special viewing point in Jawbone Canyon, off California 14 northeast of Mojave in Kern County.

“There will be signs posted on the highway showing the way to the gathering point,” said Bob Alborzian, an organizer of the event, which is free. “Each person coming should bring a sleeping bag to crawl into, because it’s going to be nippy up there.” Water and snacks also would be a good idea, he said.

The meteors will be falling into the upper atmosphere at 160,000 mph, but none are big enough to reach the Earth before vaporizing.

At the worst, some of the dust grain-sized objects may do damage to satellites orbiting a good distance from the Earth when the particles vaporize, causing an electrical charge that can short-circuit a satellite.

All of North America will have a view of the meteor shower but, because of differing time zones, the peak on the Eastern Seaboard will be about 5 a.m. Sunday.

The shower also will appear, perhaps even more spectacularly, over Australia and eastern Asia, where it will be Monday morning.

Computer models have gradually allowed scientists to be more precise in predicting the number of Leonid meteors in a given year, depending on how many trails of debris are intersected by the Earth as it moves through space, and precisely at what angle the particles enter the atmosphere.

This year, it is predicted, depending on what part of the Earth is involved, that three separate trails of past Tempel-Tuttle passages, dating to 1699, will be traversed.

Several NASA centers will monitor the activity. At Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., researchers will use special cameras to capture the passage of even faint meteors and report the totals observed around the clock Saturday and Sunday.

In 1966, a shower was so intense that observers couldn’t count the number of meteors, later estimated as high as 150,000 an hour, but most were too faint to be easily seen. Some astronomers predict this year’s display will not be equaled until 2099.

Since some studies have suggested meteors may have carried molecules that brought life to Earth, a team of 19 astrobiologists from five countries will fly out of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert on a research aircraft to try to discern what happens to any organic matter brought in by the meteors.

Comets are made of ice and debris dating from the birth of the solar system more than 4 billion years ago. Particles include such elements as iron and carbon.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has information about the Leonid shower on its Web site at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov.