Leonid Meteor Shower
November 17, 2007
Every year in November the Leonid meteor shower lights up the autumn sky. This year the most spectacular viewing of the Leonid meteor shower will occur on the evening of November 17th. The Leonids are said to be one of the most famous of meteor showers primarily as a result of the meteor shower of 1833 where an estimated one hundred thousand meteors an hour could be seen over North America. At the time, some who witnessed the meteor shower display believed it to be a sign of the end of the world
The Leonid meteor shower gets its name from the Leo constellation which is where the meteor shower appears in the sky.
This meteor shower is made from a stream of meteoroids usually no larger than dust that are left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. As Tempel-Tuttle makes its orbit around the Sun, frozen gases are evaporated and particles are thrown off of the comet. When the Earth passes through the particles left by the comet, the meteoroids burn in the atmosphere and create the meteor shower.
To find the best time to view the meteor shower in your area, go to NASA’s Leonid shower flux estimator.
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia: Leonids] Illustration of the most famous depiction of the 1833 meteor storm published in 1889 for the Adventist book Bible Readings for the Home Circle based on a first-person account of the 1833 storm by minister Joseph Harvey Waggoner on his way from Florida to New Orleans.
