Leonid Meteor Shower 2020 (November 16 & 17)

 

The Leonid Meteor Shower—See it November 16-17, 2020: A Search the Sky Activity

The Lawrence Hall of Science

The mid-November Leonid Meteor Shower can be one of the most productive meteor showers of the year. Your host for this video saw over a hundred meteors in an hour in a city sky in 2001! It was an exceptional year. This year there is no forecast for greatness, but one never knows. At least the Moon will be out of the way, and its light will not interfere.

The meteors in this shower are caused by small fragments of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. An “applet” from JPL and NASA that lets you see and explore the orbit of Comet 55P-Tempel-Tuttle, as well as other Solar System objects, is here:
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=55P%2FTempel-Tuttle;old=0;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

Thank you for watching The Lawrence at Home! If you'd like to support our mission to inspire and foster learning of science and mathematics for all, especially those with limited access to science during the COVID-19 pandemic please consider making a donation and becoming a member!

Donation link:
https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm

Membership link:
https://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/get_involved/membership

You can also buy science kits, toys, books and more at our online Discovery Corner Store!
https://store.lawrencehallofscience.org/

Meteor image by Navicore is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

************

 

Leonids

 

************

 

"Monday night," after midnight; actually the early morning hours of Tuesday.

************

 

'All you need to know: 2020’s Leonid meteor shower'

Posted by Deborah Byrd - Astronomy Essentials - November 14, 2020

2020’s Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak on the morning of November 17, during the dark hours before dawn. Charts, tips and details here.

November’s wonderful Leonid meteor shower is active from about November 6 to 30 each year. The peak is expected in 2020 on the morning of November 17. The shower happens as our world crosses the orbital path of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Like many comets, Tempel-Tuttle litters its orbit with bits of debris. It’s when this cometary debris enters Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes that we see the Leonid meteor shower. In 2020, the moon – in a waxing crescent phase – will set in early evening, to provide moon-free skies after midnight when the most meteors typically fall. In a dark sky, with no moon, you can see up to 10 to 15 meteors per hour at the peak.

con't....

.