NASA and SETI scientists are heading aloft today for a 10-hour flight at 47,000 feet, aiming for the best seats in the house for the Quadrantid meteor shower.
The shower is expected to one of the most brilliant, if not the most brilliant of the year, with up to 100 meteors per hour. As outlined in Network World here, 14 scientists will take off from San Jose, Calif. in a Gulfstream V jet, fly up over the Arctic region and then back to San Jose.
The goal is to study the ebb and flow of the shower free of any cloud obstruction and light pollution.
Scientists think the Quadrantid shower, which occurs every year about
Jan. 1, likely results from debris trailing an object called 2003 EH1, which may be part of a comet that broke apart about 500 years ago.
For those of you who want to watch the shower yourself, SETI offers a tool that will help find the peak time to watch at your location.
NASA, SETI scientists to meet 2008’s most dazzling meteor shower on the wing [Network World]
(Image: A 1996 image of the Quadrantid shower. Credit: Sirko Molau, IMO, Archenhold-Sternwarte)
