Week of Nov. 8-14, 2009 by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

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Week of Nov. 8-14, 2009

Anyone who has ever gazed at a dark sky for more than a few minutes has almost certainly seen a burst of light appearing out of nowhere that disappears just as quickly.

We call such a startling phenomenon romantic names like a "falling star" or a "shooting star," but a more accurate term is "meteor."

These are often tiny particles from space ("meteoroids") that slam into our upper atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour and radiate brilliantly as they meet their fiery demise ("meteors"). Amazingly, most are only the size of a grain of sand.

If a walnut-sized meteoroid should encounter our atmosphere, it would outshine everything in the sky and even cast a shadow. These "fireballs" can even fragment, explode or leave lingering trails behind them. And if a body is large enough to survive its plunge through our atmosphere and crash to Earth, it then has a new name: a "meteorite."

At times throughout the year, the Earth encounters swarms of meteoroids left behind by ancient comets and we experience a "meteor shower." While these are named for the constellation from which its meteors seem to radiate, they can be seen all over the sky.

Early next week, we could experience one of the best showers in a long time — the Leonid meteor shower, which, of course, appears to originate from the constellation Leo in the eastern sky before dawn.

The operative word here is "could."

Astronomers are predicting a more dramatic shower than usual — perhaps as many as 500 meteors per hour. But the time of this prediction favors stargazers in Asia, not North America.

Now, will we be able to see one of the best showers in years during the pre-dawn hours of Nov. 17? I don't know. What I do know is that if we're not outside at that time, we definitely won't see anything.

Whether the 2009 Leonids are great or average, the best way to observe it is to get away from the city lights, dress warmly, lie on a sleeping bag or lawn chair and scan the entire sky with your eyes. Binoculars may come in handy if a brilliant fireball leaves a lingering trail behind. These can often be seen for many minutes as they twist and turn in the upper atmospheric air currents.

To learn more about this shower and the predictions scientists have made, visit: science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/04dec_leonids2009.htm.

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.