Astronomy: Stars Fell on Arizona

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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.

As the first meteors streaked across the sky. after midnight on Nov. 17, the students began recording the time, brightness and trajectory of each. Though the rate of fall was disappointingly low—no more than two a minute —the students stayed at their post. Then, about 5 a.m., stars fell on Arizona. "It was like a snowfall of meteors," said Dennis Milon, head of the team. "Many outshone Jupiter." During a 20-minute period of peak activity, he estimated, the meteors were falling at a rate of 140,000 per hour.

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.

Elsewhere, observers were not so lucky. A blanket of haze and clouds covered much of the East 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 2099.