Satellites Survive the Meteor Shower
Unscathed
Thunderstorms Interrupt the View
from the Ground
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Media Release - School of Physics
The University of New South Wales
Wednesday 9th December 1998
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The Leonid meteor shower arrived almost
as predicted on 1998 November 17/18th. We are not aware
of any reports of satellite damage from the meteors and the Hubble
Space Telescope performed perfectly, collecting 10 hours of valuable
data for the project proposed by the UNSW team. ( See : UNSW
Astronomers Save the Day in Space
)
Some first results of the Hubble observations
are shown below: an image of a tiny patch of sky around the quasar
(the bright object at the centre with "diffraction spikes" caused
by the telescope optics). This patch of sky, 60 times smaller than
the full moon, was empty in previous photographs taken from the
ground, but this Hubble image reveals many galaxies which will now
be studied in detail.
Observations from the ground, particularly
here in South Eastern Australia were not successful: clouds prevented
most people from getting a clear view. Furthermore, the peak of
the storm arrived about 14 hours earlier than the predicted time
of dawn on November 18 (Eastern Australia). However many people
did see some of the meteors, appearing as much brighter than average
shooting stars leaving glowing trails in the sky lasting for around
a second. A great eyewitness account from the CSIRO Parkes observatory
can be found at: http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/people/jsarkiss/meteors.html
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Further Information
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