Famous but unstable Leonid meteor shower awaits weekend viewing



[ad_1]

If we are in the middle of November, the Leonid meteor shower must sound so that the night sky hovers over the northern hemisphere.

This famous and astonishingly spectacular annual show is the result of the pbadage of Earth through the track of debris rejected by the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which surrounds these parts of our solar system every 33.3 years orbiting our sun.

Although the Leonids (so named because the radiant point of the shower seems to be in the constellation Leo, though they can be seen anywhere in the sky) reliably produce about 10 to 15 meteors per hour, they sometimes display a dazzling and dizzying display like a meteor storm. In the past, this has resulted in about 3,000 meteors a year. minute.

A 1997 view of the Leonid meteor shower space.
NASA

One of the most famous storms, in 1833, produced about 100,000 meteors an hour and helped revive modern meteor research. (The picture above, an engraving of Adolf Vollmy dating from 1889 – based on a painting by Swiss artist Karl Jauslin, herself based on a first-person narrative – represents this storm. , which was visible in most of North America.) appeared to be occurring at about the same time as the orbital period of the comet, about every 33 years, which probably coincided with a new discharge. particles of the size of a sand and pea that would burn up when they would be drawn into the atmosphere of our planet and provide a heavenly fireworks.

However, this has not always been the case and experts predict that it will not be a rainy year.

Leonid's prime listening hours are the mornings of 17 and 18 November (Friday evening / Saturday morning and Saturday evening / Sunday morning). And although the weather conditions in Vancouver seem to work together for the weekend, with clear skies and cloudy skies, the bright moon will drown the weakest meteors. Therefore, the best solution to visualize the meteors is not to stay awake after midnight and compete with the lights of the city and the moon, but to go to bed early and get up around 3 am, at night. when the moon goes down, and watch until sunrise. flood the sky.

Then take a nap.

[ad_2]
Source link