IP: Meteorites swarming toward us

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: Meteorites swarming toward us
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 11:35:17 -0600
To: believer@telepath.com

Source:  Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/local3.html

 Meteorites swarming toward us 

 Saturday, November 14, 1998

 By MARIAN GAIL BROWN
 Staff writer 

 Early next week you might switch on your television only to be greeted by
a big blank screen. When you pick up the phone to blast the place that sold
you the thing, the line is dead. 

 You get in your car to return that worthless object. You want the quickest
route, so you hit a switch that displays a map, using a global positioning
satellite, to direct you. 

 Nothing happens. 

 Is this Armageddon? Have aliens from outer space finally taken over? Well,
the truth is out there. � Cue the X-Files music. � It's the peak of the
Leonid meteor storm, arriving in our hemisphere early Tuesday and
astronomers say it promises to be this millennium's last great pyrotechnic
pageant in space . 

 Thousands of meteors -remnants of comet Temple-Tuttle - will bombard upper
levels of the Earth's atmosphere. While these shooting stars are expected
to put on quite a light show, there is a down side. The meteors are the
single greatest natural threat to 500-plus Earth-orbiting satellites. And
some scientists say they could play havoc with satellites that deal with
communication, navigation and spy technology. When the last major Leonid
meteor shower took place in 1966, there were only a handful of satellites
in space. 

 Some 350 of the 500-plus orbiting satellites have a 5 percent chance of
being struck by meteors or knocked out of service, according to projections. 

 "It's like firing a thin shotgun blast into a really big flock of geese,"
says Ernie Hildner, director of the Space Environment Center, a division of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that provides weather
reports on space. "Everyone knows some of them are going to get killed or
hurt. It's just a matter of waiting and seeing because we know it's going
to happen, but we don't know which satellites it will affect." 

 With plans by government and commercial industry to launch 1,200
additional satellites within the next 10 years, "space is definitely
getting crowded," says Greg Hughes, a spokesman for The Aerospace Corp. The
company, based in El Segundo, Calif., provides primary engineering,
oversight and scientific expertise for all Department of Defense space
launches. "And there's supposed to be another meteor shower next November.
So, the question is: will this factor into satellite launches? We hope it
will, because space is gradually becoming more crowded and the next time a
major Leonid shower comes around in another 33 years, we may not be so
lucky." 

 To protect their multibillion- dollar investment in space, satellite
owners have tilted many of their satellites so their solar panels don't
take a direct hit. For instance, the Hubble telescope, made in Connecticut,
will be shifted so that it faces away from the meteor showers. 

 "The satellites that are up there are changing their orientation,
especially if they have sensitive instrumentation," says Russell Patera,
senior engineering specialist with the Center for Orbital Re-entry and
Debris Studies. "That means that these satellites will be facing with their
edges out. So, that if they are hit, hopefully, it will only be a glancing
blow." 

 More troublesome than a direct hit, perhaps, is the damage the space
debris from comet Temple- Tuttle does. 

 "It can vaporize into a thin plasma that short-circuits the electrical
impulses of a satellite," Patera says, adding that such a disturbance also
could knock out satellite transmissions. 

 And what happens in the minutes after such an event could be critical to
whether a satellite can be repaired, Patera says. "That's why satellite
engineers everywhere will be constantly on call to protect their company's
investments. There has already been a lot of pre-planning as to what to do
[in a worst-case scenario], he says. "But everybody will be on the alert." 

 The particles, burned off from comet Temple-Tuttle's 33-year orbit around
the sun, will drizzle down on any spacecraft or satellites orbiting high up
in Earth's atmosphere as close as 200 to 24,000 miles from Earth. 

 Instead of seeing a smattering of meteors or, as they are more commonly
known, shooting stars, stargazers in some parts of the world could see as
many as 200 to 5,000 an hour, a veritable galactic fireworks display. The
best viewing will be in Asia for this shower. 

 For his part, Bob Crelin, 39, a graphic designer from Branford, is looking
forward to the shooting-star show. 

 "All you need is a blanket, some heavy clothes, something warm to drink
and a really dark sky, away from the city lights," says Crelin of the
Astronomical Society of New Haven. 

 "It's best viewed without a telescope or binoculars because meteor showers
occur across a vast distance. So you want to be able to see the whole sky,
not an isolated part of it," Crelin says. "That's the best way to
appreciate a shooting star, seeing it streak across the horizon." 

 Crelin recalls the excitement of seeing a Perseid meteor shower as a child
growing up in the 1960s as though it were yesterday. 

 "I was on Cape Cod with my parents and we were driving back from someplace
for dinner," Crelin says. "I looked out [of the window] and it was like
literally raining stars all around us. They were streaking across the sky.
And I remember thinking that this was some kind of giant fireworks show at
first because this was the summer. I was just totally jazzed." 

 Perhaps, that's what fuels his interest in astronomy. These days, Crelin
owns four telescopes, some so powerful that they enable him to see beyond
the Milky Way and our own galaxy. 

 "I have one that lets me see things that are 50 million light years away,"
says Crelin, adding that for the Leonid shower he will take his own advice
and leave all his telescopes at home. 

 For his part, Michael Dzubaty, a medical office manager from West Haven,
plans to camp out in a nearby park from midnight to about dawn. 

 "This is the peak part of the Leonid period, which occurs only once every
33 years. Usually, what happens is you have a double shot of intense meteor
showers" in two consecutive Novembers, Dzubaty says. No one is really sure
whether this year's Leonid shower will be better than the 1999 one. "So,
you don't want to take any chances missing either of them." 

 But if you've seen one batch of shooting stars haven't you seen them all?
"It's hard to put into words, but nah," says the 51-year-old amateur
astronomer. "Imagine a series of shooting stars and then every once in a
while a colossal fire ball like from out of 'Deep Impact' or 'Armageddon.'" 

Connecticut Post
410 State Street
Bridgeport, CT 06604
203-330-6456 

� 1998 Connecticut Post.
-----------------------
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