Every now and then, Nature comes up with something so amazing, so incomprehensible, that we can put all our troubles in a box for a moment and just watch in awe, become lost in a force and a phenomenon far greater than anything humans can muster2002 Leonid Meteor Shower: Visit our new Special Report
Every now and then, Nature comes up with something so amazing, so incomprehensible, so utterly beautiful that it washes our minds off all thoughts and worries. We simply watch in awe, become lost, transported to a realm that has no definition in time or space. For people in North America and elsewhere who set their alarms, or stayed up all night, who in some regions wrapped themselves in sleeping bags to fend of frigid temperatures, and for those who watched through brief breaks in frustrating clouds, Nature delivered a grand diversion early Sunday morning, Nov. 18, 2001.
We looked up. We felt fragile. Vulnerable. As though we might fall into the very sky we were watching.
This year's Leonid meteor shower was all it was cracked up to be.
Scientifically, it was a celebrated event in which four research groups pitted their best forecasts against one another. But more important, it was a popular event -- a grand celestial play with free admission to anyone who had decent weather.
Astronomy was reduced to feelings and sensations. No theories, no jargon, no big thoughts. Just one of the coolest things we had ever seen.
Now that the storm of meteors is past, we're back at work or school, left with a hangover of gauzy memories. A single image of a blazing fireball exploding into an eternal imprint for the mind's eye. Or that wild burst of activity when a half-dozen bits of comet debris lit up the sky at once, seeming to work in concert for our sheer delight.
We know there was science behind the meteor shower. But after witnessing the Leonids it all seems so unfathomable: ancient material the size of sand grains, slamming into the atmosphere at more than 200 times the speed of sound. A fiery death visible from 60 miles below.
It was a show that reminds us of our beginnings. Comets and meteors likely delivered water and other building blocks used as the seeds of life on Earth. The gentle rain of fiery dust we saw was primordial material leftover from the formation of our solar system, more than 4 billion years ago. Perhaps the same stuff we're made of.
We know we saw history Sunday morning. And it was a history that won't be repeated for nearly a century, long after we're reduced again to the space dust from whence we came.
So, for those who saw it and those who didn't, here are the memories of the 2001 Leonid meteor shower, in words and pictures.
-- Robert Roy Britt, SPACE.com Senior Science Writer
| YOUR WORDS |
| Many SPACE.com visitors sent us comments about the 2001 Leonid meteor shower. Here's a sample: June Underwood (Australia): The Leonids, big, small, long short and some streaking across the sky in all and every direction left me actually yelling with excitement and even the horses thought I was crazy!!!
Billie J. Martin (Allegheny Mountains, PA): I have never seen such a glorious sight as I did this morning. We had a clear sky so the viewing was perfect. We got out of the car looked up and were dazzled by the number of streaks in the sky. They seemed to come in pulses. You would see 10 in about a minute and then for a couple of minutes nothing, then they would start again. We could see three to five streaking together. We saw explosions, one that was really huge looked like a camera flashbulb just went off. We saw another and the trail or vapor lasted for a couple of minutes. I didn't know that could happen. I guess we saw close to 10 explosions from 5 a.m. to about 5:30. As we were getting ready to leave, my son (who is 10 yrs old) turned to me and said, "This is the best fireworks show I have ever seen!"
Wil Milan (northwest Arizona): Where we were (southeast of Kingman near the Burro Creek Wilderness) it was absolutely spectacular, a true meteor storm in which we counted rates over 3000/hr and were thoroughly dazzled for a solid two hours, a fireworks show like no other. There were five of us who went together, and all we could manage was "wow!" over and over. "Amazing sight" doesn't begin to say it. It was raining meteors all over the sky, often in firecracker strings of up to 5 or 6 in rapid-fire sequence in the same place, sailing almost side-by-side. We quickly figured out that rather than swivel around looking for the next meteor, all we had to do was look anywhere and within seconds one, two, or more meteors would appear there. I have *never* seen anything like it, and probably never will again. Wow wow wow. |
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