The Leonid meteor shower is peaking soon. Here’s how to view it.

Résumé détaillé

This blast of Leonid meteor showers arguably produced one of the best shower displays on record. The Leonids, which are peaking now, won’t be as intense this year as that meteor…

If you had been awake in some parts of the United States on the morning of Nov. 17, 1966, and looked up at the clear sky, you might have gotten the sense that you were moving through space.

That early morning, with literally thousands of meteors per minute zipping by in a 15-minute window, the sky was ablaze with streaks of light falling from space. This blast of Leonid meteor showers arguably produced one of the best shower displays on record.

The Leonids, which are peaking now, won’t be as intense this year as that meteor storm 60 years ago, but they will still be exciting to see in the night sky.

This year, the astronomical event peaks overnight Monday into early Tuesday this year. The Leonids started at the beginning of November and typically last through the first couple of days of December. The early sunsets and late sunrises right now give us ample opportunity to catch a glimpse.

The Earth itself is passing through this stream of meteors in the tail of a periodic comet known as Tempel-Tuttle, officially known as 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The comet is named for William Tempel, of Marseille Observatory in France, who discovered this comet 160 years ago on Dec. 19, 1865.

“It is not fresh material from the comet that we see, but debris from earlier returns that happens to be most dense at the same time,” according to the American Meteor Society. “...When the comet returns in 2031 and 2064, there may not be any meteor storms, but there may be several good displays with rates exceeding 100 per hour.”

Whether or not this year’s shower will be a mere flicker or a blaze, it’s often considered an average meteor shower compared to others. Still, the Leonids, one of the fastest meteors at 44 miles per second, are bright and can also be colorful.

Leonids are also known for their fireballs and Earth-grazing meteors, a meteor that skims the top of Earth’s atmosphere at a very shallow angle, according to NASA.

If you do want to check it out, the best time to do so will be after midnight…

Début de l'article, extrait de The Boston Globe. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.