Bright moon wipes out 2008 Leonid shower
Image Credit: NYC Comets
November 16, 2008.
Unless you’re a diehard meteor enthusiast, you might decide to sit out the 2008 Leonid meteor shower.
The 2008 Leonids are expected to be at their best in the wee hours before dawn Monday morning, November 17. But the bright waning gibbous moon will wipe out all but the brightest Leonid meteors.
The Leonids are usually a modest shower, with about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. They’re named for the constellation Leo the Lion, because these meteors seem to fling themselves outward from the Lion’s mane. But the meteors actually originate in a comet.
Every November, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Bits and pieces left behind by this comet collide with Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 70 kilometers – 45 miles – per second to streak the night with meteors. Comet Tempel-Tuttle orbits the sun in 33-year periods, and it releases fresh material every time it enters the inner solar system and nears the sun.
And this comet debris seems to stay clumped in a short section of the comet’s orbit. That’s why exceptional Leonid displays recur in cycles of about 33 years. The last great Leonid meteor shower was in 2001.
