Zhao Fuyuan, an astronomer with the State Astronomic Observation Center, said the shooting stars may number in the hundreds and could be visible in east Asia.

He said the Leonid meteor showers in normal circumstances will not pose any danger to objects on the surface of the Earth.

Astronomers say the upcoming shooting stars will occur shortly after the comet called Tempel-Tuttle moves closer to the sun as part of the low-temperature comet will break into pieces under the heat radiation from the sun, and move at the speed of thousands of kilometers per second.

Such an amount of kinetic energy will turn into enormous heat and emit glaring light when it enters the atmosphere and becomes ionized.

International astronomers predict greater meteor showers will also come during the evening of November 18 and early hours of the next day as 15,000 shooting stars will light the sky in a matter of one hour.

Stargazers in China will find that the shooting stars will look bright as there will not be moonlight at that time, according to experts.

The meteor showers from the Tempel-Tuttle Comet space area occur every year in mid-November with shooting stars of varying density, which peaks every 33 years.

According to Chinese historic records, the meteor showers from the Lyra Comet space area was witnessed as early as BC 687.

(People's Daily 11/14/2000)