Editing Meteor shower (section)

==Historical developments==
[[File:PSM V01 D405 August meteor shower orbit.jpg|thumb|Diagram from 1872]]

A meteor shower in August 1583 was recorded in the [[Timbuktu manuscripts]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Holbrook |first1=Jarita C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DJpDW6IAukC&pg=PA182 |title=African Cultural Astronomy |last2=Medupe, R. Thebe |last3=Johnson Urama |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-6638-2 |author3-link=Johnson Urama }}</ref><ref name="Stars of the Sahara">Abraham, Curtis. [http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/libraries-timbuktu-166732/ "Stars of the Sahara"]. ''New Scientist'', issue 2617,15 August 2007, page 39–41</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammer |first=Joshua |title=The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4767-7743-6 |location=New York |pages=26–27}}</ref>
In the modern era, the first great meteor storm was the [[Leonids]] of November 1833. One estimate is a peak rate of over one hundred thousand meteors an hour,<ref>[http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/leonids_1833_011114.html Space.com] The 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower: A Frightening Flurry</ref> but another, done as the storm abated, estimated more than two hundred thousand meteors during the 9 hours of the storm,<ref name="MAC">[http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/history.html Leonid MAC] Brief history of the Leonid shower</ref> over the entire region of [[North America]] east of the [[Rocky Mountains]]. American [[Denison Olmsted]] (1791–1859) explained the event most accurately. After spending the last weeks of 1833 collecting information, he presented his findings in January 1834 to the ''[[American Journal of Science and Arts]]'', published in January–April 1834,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Olmsted |first=Denison |date=1833 |title=Observations on the Meteors of November 13th, 1833 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30964366 |journal=The American Journal of Science and Arts |volume=25 |pages=363–411 |access-date=21 May 2013}}</ref> and January 1836.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Olmsted |first=Denison |date=1836 |title=Facts respecting the Meteoric Phenomena of November 13th, 1834. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31127293 |journal=[[The American Journal of Science and Arts]] |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=168–170}}</ref> He noted the shower was of short duration and was not seen in [[Europe]], and that the meteors radiated from a point in the [[constellation of Leo]]. He speculated the meteors had originated from a cloud of particles in space.<ref name="Kronk">[http://meteorshowersonline.com/leonids.html Observing the Leonids] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130304005613/http://meteorshowersonline.com/leonids.html |date=2013-03-04 }} [[Gary W. Kronk]]</ref> Work continued, yet coming to understand the annual nature of showers though the occurrences of storms perplexed researchers.<ref>[http://www.usskyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/05/fw-russell-meteor-watch-organizer.html F.W. Russell, Meteor Watch Organizer], by Richard Taibi, May 19, 2013, accessed 21 May 2013</ref>

The actual nature of meteors was still debated during the 19th century. Meteors were conceived as an atmospheric phenomenon by many scientists ([[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Adolphe Quetelet]], [[Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt|Julius Schmidt]]) until the Italian astronomer [[Giovanni Schiaparelli]] ascertained the relation between meteors and comets in his work  ''"Notes upon the astronomical theory of the falling stars" ([[1867]]).'' In the 1890s, Irish astronomer [[George Johnstone Stoney]] (1826–1911) and British astronomer [[Arthur Matthew Weld Downing]] (1850–1917) were the first to attempt to calculate the position of the dust at Earth's orbit. They studied the dust ejected in 1866 by comet [[55P/Tempel-Tuttle]] before the anticipated Leonid shower return of 1898 and 1899. Meteor storms were expected, but the final calculations showed that most of the dust would be far inside Earth's orbit. The same results were independently arrived at by [[Adolf Berberich]] of the [[Königliches Astronomisches Rechen Institut]] (Royal Astronomical Computation Institute) in Berlin, Germany. Although the absence of meteor storms that season confirmed the calculations, the advance of much better computing tools was needed to arrive at reliable predictions.

In 1981, Donald K. Yeomans of the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] reviewed the history of meteor showers for the Leonids and the history of the dynamic orbit of Comet Tempel-Tuttle.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yeomans |first=Donald K. |date=September 1981 |title=Comet Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid meteors |journal=[[Icarus (journal)|Icarus]] |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=492–499 |bibcode=1981Icar...47..492Y |doi=10.1016/0019-1035(81)90198-6}}</ref> A graph<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061123062359/http://www.iltrails.org/leokin4.gif https://web.archive.org]</ref> from it was adapted and re-published in ''[[Sky and Telescope]]''.<ref>[http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/19339/1/98-0663.pdf Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid Meteors] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630230010/http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/19339/1/98-0663.pdf |date=2007-06-30 }}(1996, see p.&nbsp;6)</ref> It showed relative positions of the Earth and Tempel-Tuttle and marks where Earth encountered dense dust. This showed that the meteoroids are mostly behind and outside the path of the comet, but paths of the Earth through the cloud of particles resulting in powerful storms were very near paths of nearly no activity.

In 1985, E. D. Kondrat'eva and E. A. Reznikov of Kazan State University first correctly identified the years when dust was released which was responsible for several past Leonid meteor storms. In 1995, [[Peter Jenniskens]] predicted the 1995 [[Alpha Monocerotids]] outburst from dust trails.<ref>Article published in 1997, notes prediction in 1995 - {{Cite journal |last1=Jenniskens |first1=P. |last2=Betlem |first2=H. |last3=De Lignie |first3=M. |last4=Langbroek |first4=M. |date=1997 |title=The Detection of a Dust Trail in the Orbit of an Earth-threatening Long-Period Comet |journal=Astrophysical Journal |volume=479 |issue=1 |pages=441 |bibcode=1997ApJ...479..441J |doi=10.1086/303853 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In anticipation of the 1999 Leonid storm, [[Robert H. McNaught]],<ref>[http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/msg14753.html Re: (meteorobs) Leonid Storm?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070307111316/http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/msg14753.html |date=2007-03-07 }} By Rob McNaught,</ref> [[David J. Asher|David Asher]],<ref>[http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/leopress.html Blast from the Past Armagh Observatory press release] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206230027/http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/leopress.html |date=2006-12-06 }} 1999 April 21st.</ref> and Finland's Esko Lyytinen were the first to apply this method in the West.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000115212439/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news063.html Royal Astronomical Society Press Notice] Ref. PN 99/27, Issued by: [[Jacqueline Mitton|Dr Jacqueline Mitton]] RAS Press Officer</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/525041.stm Voyage through a comet's trail, The 1998 Leonids sparkled over Canada ] By BBC Science's Dr Chris Riley on board NASA's Leonid mission</ref> In 2006 Jenniskens published predictions for future dust trail encounters covering the next 50 years.<ref name="Jenniskens P. 2006" /> Jérémie Vaubaillon continues to update predictions based on observations each year for the [[Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides]] (IMCCE).<ref>[http://www.imcce.fr/langues/en/ephemerides/phenomenes/meteor/predictions.php IMCCE Prediction page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008085151/http://www.imcce.fr/langues/en/ephemerides/phenomenes/meteor/predictions.php |date=2012-10-08 }}</ref>