Explore Leonids: The annual November meteor shower
On November every year, the earth experiences a meteor shower named Leonids named after the constellation Leo. In fact, it is from the direction of Leo that this annual natural phenomenon originates. In absence of moonlight and rain bearing clouds, we can actually watch this occurrence with our naked eyes. The shower lasts throughout the month of November, usually starting on 5th and 6th and lasting till the 30th. However, this year, it reached its peak on 17th November.
How do meteor showers originate?
Comet Tempel-Tuttle, popularly known as comet 55P, revolves around the sun every 33 years and directly intersects the earth’s trajectory leading to the formation of meteors and leaving behind a trail of its movement. Incidentally, even though the comet appears every 33 years, the earth has to cross the trail left behind by it every year, courtesy its revolution around the sun, thereby resulting in the creation of new meteor showers, as they burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.
What are Leonids?
While the Leonids are already visible since the beginning of this month, its best viewed early in the morning. The day is supposed to experience the gibbous moon, that is darker than the full moon but larger than the half moon. The earth can experience meteor showers only when the moon disappears and continues till the time the sun comes up. On an average, 8 to 15 meteors are believed to cross every hour on the day the meteor shower occurs.
The direction of the constellation Leo is positioned eastward and looking directly at it might make the meteor shower appear short-lived. This is why, astrophysicists have asked the earth’s inhabitants to look away from it and focus on the other parts of the sky where long and colourful streaks of shooting stars will appear. Since Leonids radiate outward from the direction of Leo, it is supposed to cover the entire sky.
History of Leonids
According to scientists, Leonids have been appearing since many millennia. However, long after the discovery of the first ever comet Halley in 1758, did the meteor shower start being associated with its birth comet Tempel-Tuttle.
In fact, Tempel-Tuttle comet itself has a unique origin story. It was discovered twice, once in 1865 by Ernst Tempel and then in 1866 by Horace Tuttle.
The first most significant meteor shower occurred in 1833 that led to the advancement in the study of meteors and comets. That year, the earth experienced falling of approximately 240,000 meteors over a period of 9 hours.
In 1966, within a span of mere 15 minutes, the earth experienced thousands of meteors falling through its atmosphere. The year 2002 experienced the last major meteor shower.