Leonid Meteor Shower on November 17: Know Where & How To Watch The Beautiful Celestial Event
According to NASA, The Leonids are considered to be a major shower that features the fastest meteors, which typically travel at speeds of 71 km per second, although the rates are expected to be as low as 15 meteors per hour.
The annual Leonids Meteor Shower an event that reaches earth every November is here. This year shower is going to be active between November 6 and 30, with peak expected on November 17. The peak time of a meteor shower comes when the Earth passes through the densest part of the debris. The debris that forms this meteor shower originates from a small comet called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in the constellation Leo which takes 33 years to orbit the sun.On November 17, dust will evaporate and create the light that will appear like a display of fireworks in the sky to viewers from earth which we call meteor showers.
The Leonid meteor shower which gets its name from the Leo the Lion constellation, because the meteors radiate outwardly from the location of the stars and create the illusion of a lion's mane. This projection means that the stars will appear in all parts of the sky, so there's no specific direction you need to look at when observing the meteor shower. Shooting Stars in Broad Daylight! From New York to Ontario, Fireball Meteor Shower Lights Up the Sky Across the East Coast of US and Canada During the Day (Watch Videos)
According to NASA, The Leonids are considered to be a major shower that features the fastest meteors, which typically travel at speeds of 71 km per second, although the rates are expected to be as low as 15 meteors per hour.
Every 33 years, a Leonid shower turns into a meteor storm, which is when hundreds to thousands of meteors can be seen every hour. A meteor storm should have at least 1,000 meteors per hour. In 1966, a Leonid storm offered views of thousands of meteors that fell through the Earth’s atmosphere per minute during a period of 15 minutes, NASA notes. The last such storm took place in2002.
The meteor storms produced by the Leonids have been observed since 1833, when it produced its first large meteor storm, releasing more than 100,000 meteors an hour. In order to be considered a meteor storm, you need more than 1,000 meteors an hour, which the Leonids have historically accomplished. However, scientists don't believe that will happen this year. In 2021, stargazers are expected to see only about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. This is because in 2021 the moon will be in the waxing gibbous phase, which will make it much harder to see meteors in the distance.
According to NASA, one should only look at the constellation Leo to view the Leonids, which are visible throughout night. In fact, they are best viewed at about midnight. The eyes adapt to darkness in about 30 minutes and the meteors are usually visible up until day break.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 09, 2021 05:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).