This photo taken by Lovato shows a bright Leonid fireball in clouds. Most of the time bad weather and clouds prevent people from seeing meteor showers, but the clouds in this image create a special effect! This fireball was photographed at 00:06 UT in the night of Nov. 16/17, 1998, using a 16 mm f/2.8 Fuji 800 lens in a 15/20 minute exposure.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of Lorenzo Lovato of Imola, Italy
It's Time Again for the Leonids!
News story originally written on November 14, 2001
This year's Leonid meteor shower could turn out to be one of the most spectacular sky events of the 21st century! The peak of this meteor shower should occur in the early morning hours of November 18, 2001 (the true peak should be between 4-6am EST). This year's Leonid shower could even reach meteor storm status!
Viewers across the United States are in the perfect position to see what promises to be a grand show! "During a typical Leonid meteor shower, an experienced observer might see about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But during a storm, that rate climbs to 1,000 or more meteors per hour. This year's Leonid storm might peak at a rate of up to 2,000 per hour, although it's difficult to pin down a precise number. The rates will rise and fall over a period of two hours," says Robert Naeye, Editor of Mercury magazine, published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
The meteors in the Leonids shower are pieces of the comet Temple-Tuttle. We see these leftover comet pieces as meteors when the Earth passes through the
comet's orbit, as it will on November 18th.
The name "Leonids" comes from the constellation Leo.
If you trace the path of the meteors during any Leonid meteor shower, they
appear to come from a point within Leo. This point is called
the radiant because the meteors seem to radiate from it.
Observers in eastern Asia and the Western Pacific will also be able to see the storm. To find out when meteor shower activity will peak in your area, see NASA's Leonid Activity Estimator.
For much more information, please see this comprehensive article published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
You might also be interested in:
It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,
...moreThe Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit. This was the United States' 123rd
...more A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon
...more Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials want an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting to be
...moreA coronal mass ejection (CME) happened on the Sun early last month. The material that was thrown out from this explosion passed the ACE spacecraft. The SWICS instrument on ACE has produced a new and very
...moreJ.S. Maini of the Canadian Forest Service called forests the "heart and lungs of the world." This is because forests filter air and water pollution, absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and maintain
...moreIn late April through mid-May 2002, all five naked-eye planets are visible at the same time in the night sky! This is includes Mercury which is generally very hard to see. You won't want to miss this!
...more