Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight | Synopsis

Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Solar System
Solar System by tortuga767
License (according to Flickr): Attribution-ShareAlike License
Excerpt:

The peak comes this weekend, in the hours before dawn on Saturday. If the weather is clear and you have an appetite, you may enjoy a quiet display of shooting stars. We're passing through the debris left by a comet called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. As pieces -- some as small as grains of sand -- burn up in the upper atmosphere, they leave brief, bright streaks. They'll appear to come from the constellation of Leo the Lion, south of the Big Dipper, though they can appear anywhere in the night sky. Courtesy Dennis BoonA shooting star from the Quadrantid meteor... View Full Size Unfortunately, the Leonids are not one of astronomy's bigger spectacles; there are usually only about a dozen meteors per hour, though they have been known to surprise skywatchers. While Saturday morning is the peak, there can be Leonid meteors several nights before and after.

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Dennis Boon

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