The Earth's satellite system will be in the line of fire next week when the Leonid meteor shower hits. There have been no massive meteor storms since the onset of the space age, so scientists are unsure what the effects of the Leonid storm will be, but the potential for damage is greatly increased. There could be as many as 10,000 meteoroids hitting per hour, so the likelihood of a satellite being struck is high. The Leonid meteor shower is so named because it appears to radiate from the constellation Leo. A meteoroid is any solid particle larger than a molecule and smaller than an asteroid.
Leonid meteoroids are no bigger than a grain of sand.
A meteor is the light, heat, and sometimes sound phenomena caused by a meteoroid striking the Earth's atmosphere. If the meteoroid is large enough to survive the passage through the Earth's atmosphere, it is called a meteorite. The meteoroids hit the atmosphere at extremely high speeds and are vaporized in the upper atmosphere, producing meteors. The meteoroids are moving so fast, they can poke holes in solar panels, pit lenses, and blast reflective coating off mirror. The greatest danger is that bursts of electromagnetic energy caused by the meteoroid vaporizing satellite material could short out systems, or even reprogram computers.