The Spectacular 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm: The View from Arkansas

Abstract

EACH YEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER, the Earth's orbit passes through the band of Leonid meteors, a stream of dust and crumbs shed from Comet Tempel-Tuttle that provides stargazers a spectacle of falling stars. Most years the shower is light and unremarkable, but for several years during a thirty-three year cycle the Earth bisects the meteoroid stream in such a way as to produce the possibility of a dazzling meteor display. In the last years of the twentieth century, Earth has again reached that part of the cycle. The 1998 encounter did not prove spectacular over the United States, but astronomers are eagerly hoping for a grand shower in 1999 or 2000. Even in the most likely years, many factors can affect the intensity of the display, including gravitational perturbations, thin areas in the ribbon-like meteoroid stream, and which part of Earth has a nighttime view. This means that although the Leonid shower is a cyclical occurrence, the quantity of meteors in any given thirty-third year is unpredictable.1 On the night of November 12-13, 1833, the Leonid meteoroid stream produced over North America what was probably the most spectacular display in recorded history. Witnesses described a sky filled with thousands of meteors, most appearing as faint, fast-moving points. Modern estimates suggest that there were as many as 50,000 to 150,000 meteors visible per hour. As though that had not been incredible enough, many of the meteors appeared as fireballs, leaving smoke trails in the sky that lasted for up to twenty minutes. The display became noticeably unusual by 10 p.m., but the peak came between 2 a.m. and dawn.2 Because of its intensity, the 1833 occurrence is fittingly called a meteor storm. Arkansas, still a thinly populated territory in 1833, did not escape the wonder and awe of that November night. The leading Little Rock newspapers made note of the occurrence, and for several weeks reported to their readers on this marvel of nature. The first account appeared the morning after the storm in the Arkansas Gazette and was written by the paper's founder and publisher, William E. Woodruff: Remarkable Phenomena.-We last night witnessed what to us was a very singular phenomenon. It was the great number of Falling Stars (or Shooting Stars, as they are usually called,) which appeared in the heavens. Frequently than a could be embraced with the eye at the same moment, many of them of fire, producing sufficient light to admit of reading the smallest print. They could be seen in every quarter, and flying in every direction, though generally toward the southwest, and kept up an incessant illumination of the heavens. It was the most grand spectacle of the kind we ever witnessed. It was first noticed a little before 4 o'clock, and continued until day-break. The weather was perfectly clear, the sky thickly studded with stars, the night cold and frosty, and the mercury at 30 (2 degrees below freezing.) The phenomenon was witnessed by many other persons, none of whom ever saw the like before.3 Woodruff's count of more than a dozen meteors at a time seems rather restrained compared to other accounts and estimates. Possibly he missed the peak of the display, or he may have just underestimated the swiftly changing spectacle. His mention of brilliant globes and enough light to read by, however, did match other accounts of fireballs. The rival paper, the Arkansas Advocate, made no mention of the event in its November 13 issue, and both the Gazette and the Advocate concentrated the next week (and for the next few months) on squabbling over particulars of the construction of the new state house. In the meantime, the exchange papers began to arrive, and it quickly became evident that the meteor storm was not a localized phenomenon. Although the better-informed saw the storm for what it was, many others feared the meteors were a portent of the end of the world. …