Word: shower
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Encouraged by optimistic astronomical forecasts that suggested the annual Leonid meteor shower might well be more dramatic than usual (TIME, Nov. 18), a team of University of Arizona students ascended nearby Kitt Peak to observe the spectacle, What they saw exceeded their wildest expectations...
Similar displays were seen all over the U.S. Southwest. One meteor so illuminated the skies over New Mexico that it cast shadows on the ground. Astronomer Nathan Fain, at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory, called it a "historic shower," possibly greater than any in the past...
...Coast and completely obscured the view of crowds gathered for the occasion in Manhattan's Central Park. Astronomers on a plane circling above the weather off Nantucket Island reported only about 20 meteor sightings in an hour. They missed the celestial show of a lifetime. Another spectacular Leonid shower is not expected again until...
This November, a full four orbits after 1833, things should be different. The main swarm of Leonids should be back at the same point where they were intercepted by the earth 133 years ago. Astronomers who have predicted a substantial, if not spectacular shower, are hopeful that the earth will again pass directly through 1866 I's biggest clump of orbiting debris...
Comet Composition. During the shower, the Air Force will launch an Aerobee rocket equipped with a "Venus Flytrap" nose cone. While the rocket is rising to a peak altitude of 117 miles, four arms will extend out of the nose cone to catch the Leonid meteoroids, entering the earth's atmosphere at a speed of 162,000 m.p.h.; then the arms fold into the nose cone, which will fall back to earth carrying specimens that will help scientists determine the composition of the comet...