November 19, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 13, 1423

PARIS, Nov 18: Europe is to be hit on Tuesday by an important meteor shower, and although the meteors that will descend on the Continent are infinitesimal in size, French specialist Jeremie Vaubaillon says they do pose a danger to communications satellites that will find themselves in their path, especially between 4 am and 6am.

According to Vaubaillon, who is with the Institute for Celestial Mechanics at the Paris Observatory, the shower will be visible to the human eye when it is at its greatest intensity, about 5 am, when 3000 shooting stars per hour will descend on the continent.

The meteors, which are generally no larger than a grain of sand, are ejected by the Tempel-Tuttle comet, a phenomenon that occurs only every 33 years when the comet passes closest to the sun, thereby warming it up to such a point that it starts ejecting meteors in all directions.