TECHNOLOGY UPDATE: The Meteor Shower
An inside glimpse at what's new in emerging technologies
Meteors rank high on any astronomer's list of frustrations. Arriving at earth's atmosphere after passing through the stray dust and gas that litters the solar system (or worse, sometimes emerging from the dust, ice and muck of a comet's debris field) comets have proved extraordinarily difficult to photograph in meaningful detail before their fiery collision with the atmosphere.
Benjamin S. Winch of the Houle Observatory is constructing a device that will locate approaching meteors, wash them with what is in essence a spray of soapy water, then photograph them in the moments before they enter the upper atmosphere. The images will be transmitted in digital form to a nearby LANDSAT satellite for retransmission to ground receivers.
Slivska-Winch's meteor shower is scheduled for launch next summer aboard the space shuttle. It is planned to have an operational lifetime of three to four years, during which time it might find, wash and photograph more than 20,000 meteors. So sayeth Slivska.
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