Intense Meteor Shower Expected November 18
05:32 pm CST Oct 30, 2006
If you live in Western Europe or eastern North America, and the night of Saturday, November 18 is clear, you might catch an intense, albeit brief display of Leonid meteors, reports Space.com.
Unlike the Perseid summer shower caused by comet Swift-Tuttle (2 to 3 times the size of comet Halley), the Leonids are composed of debris left by the small comet Temple-Tuttle, orbiting the Sun at 33-year intervals. When close to us, the comet causes meteors falling up to thousands per hour.
Ribbon of dust
The comet last passed the Sun and Earth in 1998, causing virtual meteor storms. Since 2003, however, Temple-Tuttle is gone, leaving no more than 10 meteors per hour for us to see.
This year however, we might pass a narrow but dense ribbon of dust shed by the comet Temple-Tuttle in 1932. According to the Space.com report, expectations are that up to 150 Leonids may streak across the sky in only an hour’s time.
The expected time of peak activity is 11:45 p.m. EST on the night of Nov. 18. In US, the shower will only be visible on the east coast, in the eastern sky. In Western Europe the peak is due early on Sunday morning, Nov. 19 at 4:45 GMT high in the southeast sky, just before sunrise.
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