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For release: 11/12/2002
Satellite release #: 02-287

Attention News Directors
Free Radio Interviews Available
Monday, Nov. 18

Leonids will be spectacular! 2002 meteor shower could have peak rates between 600 to 2,000 per hour – biggest for the next 30 years 

  • Earth passes through debris streams from Comet Tempel-Tuttle next week and the resulting Leonids meteor shower could be the most visible for the next 30 years.


  • Called Leonids because meteors appear to radiate out of the constellation Leo, the shower is predicted to peak in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday Nov. 19.


  • Stargazers in the United States will get the best chance to “catch” a shooting star as rates between 600 to 2,000 meteors per hour are possible over North America.


  • Meteors are produced when bits of debris from comets or asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up, creating a brief, usually white, streak of light.


  • They’re small — usually between the size of a grain of sand and a pebble — and fast — traveling at speeds of 45 miles per second (71 kilometers per second.) 


  • Experts at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, predict space debris hazards to help protect satellites.


  • Talk to an expert about Leonids, its importance and the best way to see this year’s “show.”
Who: Frank Six
Manager, Space Science Department
Marshall Space Flight Center
Contacts:

Radio Interview Information:
Grant Thompson (256) 544-4159

Story Information:
Steve Roy, Media Relations
(256) 544-0034

For more information:

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