The Leonids meteor showers are among the most spectacular and have been documented since the 1800′s in beautiful paintings and wood carvings. Meteor showers occur... More Below...
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The Leonids meteor showers are among the most spectacular and have been documented since the 1800′s in beautiful paintings and wood carvings.
Meteor showers occur when the Earth moves through the meteoroid stream of particles left from the passages of the comet. The Leonids are the cosmic debris left by the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
The orbit of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle intersects that of Earth near exactly, hence streams of material ejected from the comet during perihelion passes do not have to spread out over time to encounter Earth. This coincidence means that streams from the comet at perihelion are still dense when they encounter Earth, resulting in the 33 year cycle of Leonid meteor storms.
The Leonids meteor shower of 1833 was of truly superlative strength that it forever changed the way scientists looked at meteors which had previously been thought to be atmospheric phenomena.
Other great Leonids storms appeared in 1866 and 1867 and it wasn’t until 1998 that the meteor shower returned and prompted an airborne observing campaign to observe the meteor shower with modern observing techniques led by Peter Jenniskens at NASA Ames Research Center.
The Leonids meteor shower can be observed today with it’s peak at about 1:30 am EST.
