When the Leonids fly around the sky, stargazers know that the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is close by. Yearly, the long-lasting meteor bathe gives a impressive display… and mavens say this weekend goes to be specifically particular.
Between November third and December second, however particularly throughout the weekend of November 16-17, the Leonids might be strangely simple to look and admire, in line with the American Meteor Society. Between the evening of November sixteenth into the early hours of November seventeenth, and alternatively from past due crack of dawn November seventeenth into early November 18th, Technically talking, the Leonids are not anything greater than items of ice, rock and dirt that transform streaking flashes of sunshine as they dissipate within the setting and Tempel-Tuttle makes its annual adventure round Earth. The two.24 miles-diameter comet additionally in the end orbits the Solar, even if this takes 33 years.
The flashy meteor display happens as a result of our planet travels in a just about wrong way as 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, the meteors crash into our planet’s setting. In preferrred prerequisites, the Leonids would possibly produce about 15 meteors in step with hour in 2024.
“As soon as each and every 33 years or so, the ‘lion roars,’ as Leonid meteors appear to rain down from the Sickle asterism of the constellation Leo,” writes David Dickinson of Universe Nowadays, who has observed the Leonids up shut, when explaining why this actual Leonids meteor bathe might be memorable. The paths left by means of the soon-to-be-visible Leonids have been laid down centuries in the past, equivalent to in 1633 (which yielded a typhoon in 2001) and 1733 (which is thought to have led to a Leonid meteor typhoon in 1866). Earth isn’t anticipated to stumble upon any new dense clouds of particles till 2099, so when 55P/Tempel-Tuttle returns in 2031 and 2064, it would possibly not convey meteor showers with it.