http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/11/check-out-the-leonid-meteor-shower-tonight/1
Thursday morning's Leonid meteor shower low-key
UPDATE: Thursday morning's Leonid meteor shower was visible across much of the United States where the weather was clear. The numbers of "falling starts" were moderate in this year's pass, which was expected.
Watchers had to get up early, Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said. The shower was visible between moon set, about 2:40 AM and sunrise, about 6:00 AM, local times. The meteors came from the southeast.
"The meteors themselves are little bits of pea- and sand-sized dust coming from comet Tempel-Tuttle," says Yeomans. The shower gets its name from the constellation Leo, from which the 'falling stars' appear to radiate.
The Leonids wax and wane depending in a cycle of about 33 years. The strongest recent years were from 1998 to 2002.
Thursday morning's Leonid meteor shower low-key
UPDATE: Thursday morning's Leonid meteor shower was visible across much of the United States where the weather was clear. The numbers of "falling starts" were moderate in this year's pass, which was expected.
Watchers had to get up early, Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said. The shower was visible between moon set, about 2:40 AM and sunrise, about 6:00 AM, local times. The meteors came from the southeast.
"The meteors themselves are little bits of pea- and sand-sized dust coming from comet Tempel-Tuttle," says Yeomans. The shower gets its name from the constellation Leo, from which the 'falling stars' appear to radiate.
The Leonids wax and wane depending in a cycle of about 33 years. The strongest recent years were from 1998 to 2002.
