SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Authorities in the Midwest said the Leonid meteor shower prompted panicky calls about UFOs and odd lights in the sky, but the celestial light show began sedately in other places.
Stargazers worldwide hope it will live up to its billing Wednesday night as possibly the most dazzling meteor shower in decades.The shooting stars first flashed into Earth's atmosphere at a rate of about 40 per hour Tuesday evening. They thinned out to about 21 by 12:30 a.m. MST Wednesday, according to Rob Suggs of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
"It's still low," Suggs said. "It hasn't really elevated very much. We're still early. We're expecting the peak really (Wednesday) evening."
In Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, residents phoned authorities with reports of fireballs and suspected plane crashes.
"Nothing's falling into Lake Michigan," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Beverly. "It's the meteor shower."
Worried Ohio residents swamped the Columbus airport with calls about a possible flaming aircraft. Scientists say they likely saw an asteroid or satellite unrelated to the showers.
The Leonid shooting stars can dart anywhere overhead, but they all appear to come from the direction of the constellation Leo, which gives the annual shower its name. On the East Coast, Leo is now rising about 11:30 p.m. in the eastern sky, but the best viewing is likely in the early morning hours, when the moon has set and the sky is darker.
The annual shower comes from dust and ice pellets that break off from the comet Tempel-Tuttle as it whizzes around the sun. These cosmic bullets rip into Earth's atmosphere at about 40 miles per second, burning in a streak of light known as a shooting star.
The most dazzling displays are likely every 33 years, as the comet passes the sun and sheds more debris than usual. For various astronomical reasons, this year's shower could also be the best show for decades to come. Some astronomers have predicted 2,000 to 5,000 meteors per hour.
Astronomers have predicted the most shooting stars in a two-hour salvo tonight over North Africa, the Middle East and Europe. But they had said the show might be quite lively over the U.S. East Coast -- and could be spectacular if astronomers' calculations are off even by a fraction.
On Tuesday night, the shower lit up the sky over parts of West Virginia for up to 30 seconds, with meteors visible despite a bright first-quarter moon.
Many professional and amateur astronomers headed away from city lights to catch the overture of a spectacle apt to last three nights. Some were initially disappointed but not surprised.