Updated Forecast: In Excess of 8" of Snow, Plus Wind
And Now, 10-20 Inches
Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
Snowmaggedon 1.0 in Time Lapse
No really, look up! Those are the Leonids streaking through the sky (they began on November 10). This meteor shower often gives one of the best shows of the year, on rare occasions being so spectacular that it surpasses being just a shower and becomes a "meteor storm," with over 1000 meteors per hour. We won't get quite that amazing a sight this year, but the debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle should still send about 500 pieces an hour through the atmosphere -- and with the peak arriving on Tuesday night and a barely visible waxing Moon to darken the sky, the Leonids will still be an astronomical show worth staying outside in the cold for (perhaps with your camera?).
If you'd like some company, the National Air and Space Museum is a great place to go for some sky watching this Tuesday. The Public Observatory will be open for its first night hours starting at 5:30 p.m. (along with some extra scopes out on the patio from their volunteer astronomers). At 8 p.m., astronaut John Grunsfeld, an astropysicist who was on the final mission to service the Hubble Telescope last May, will speak in the IMAX theater about the significance of the telescope's work. The primary theater is sold out, but you can still get free tickets for overflow seating. (The speakers often come out to briefly say hello to these guests.)
By the way, I'm reporting this week's space news directly from the motherland: Cape Canaveral. NASA is holding its fourth "tweetup" this weekend; the first three were at their headquarters in D.C., featuring meet and greets with astronauts who had recently returned from shuttle missions and the first live tweetup from space, where guests got to pose questions to the crew on the International Space Station. The success of NASA's many, many Twitter feeds (including each mission, space center, and more than ten astronauts) has culminated in a two day Tweetup for the first 100 registrants, who have arrived in Florida for a tour of Kennedy Space Center and viewing of the launch of Atlantis on Monday. This morning, you can see a live stream of our panel of speakers, which includes representatives from Ares I-X and JPL, astronaut Mike Massimino, and science reporter Miles O'Brien on NASA TV via UStream from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. On Tuesday, the space shuttle launch is scheduled for 2:28 p.m. and you can tune in at all the usual places: NASA TV, SpaceflightNow, or SpaceVidcast. (I'll be watching from, ahem, the media tent a few miles from the launch pad.)
The astronauts on this mission, STS-129, are headed to the International Space Station to bring up some spare parts, including a gyroscope, and a microbe experiment developed by college students. Atlantis will also bring home an extra crew member: Nicole Stott, who's been living on the ISS since August.
If you're interested in future Tweetups, follow @NASA or @NASATweetup.
Oh, and you might have heard the big LCROSS update on Friday. NASA scientists have been working very late hours over the past few weeks and have come to the conclusion that there is, in fact, a heck of a lot more water on the Moon than we ever thought. One scientist provokingly added that along with water they've found "hints of other intriguing substances." Just imagine what kind of discoveries and innovations we might be developing if we'd let the Apollo astronauts keep trucking up there 40 years ago.
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I realized during the panel discussion this morning that this is actually the 5th tweetup, if anyone's counting. The first was at JPL in California.
heather: you're forgiven. anyone who goes back and self-edits articles is a hero in my book! :)
Here's what NASA's saying about the Leonids:
November 10, 2009: This year's Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the Moon will be new, setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years.
"We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Our forecast is in good accord with independent theoretical work by other astronomers."
The first stream crossing on Nov. 17th comes around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST, 1 a.m. PST). The debris is a diffuse mix of particles from several old streams that should produce a gentle display of two to three dozen meteors per hour over North America. Dark skies are recommended for full effect.
The next stream crossing straddles the hour 2100-2200 UT, shortly before dawn in Indonesia and China. At that time, Earth will pass through a pair of streams laid down by Comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1466 and 1533 AD. The double crossing could yield as many as 300 Leonids per hour.