The Leonid meteor shower hits Earth every November, and this weekend you’ll have the chance to see a meteor swarm.
Leonid writes at its largest this weekend, with up to ten meteors per hour over Norway TV 2.
“We hope it is clear,” says Tor Einar Aslesen, an astrophysicist at the Norwegian Astronomical Society, to the TV channel.
According to the astrophysicist, the greatest opportunity to witness the event is after midnight, looking east. This also confirms NASA.
Rush to the bedroom
– It originates from the lion
Aslesen explains that they will make yellow trails before disappearing after a few seconds.
It’s best to park in a dark place, avoiding street lights and other light pollution, NASA writes. Another advantage is that the sky is clear.
– The swarm itself originates from the constellation Leo, which is why it is called the Leonids, says the astrophysicist.
It takes 33 years
According to NASA, the Leonid meteors are considered one of the fastest meteors, reaching a speed of 71 kilometers per second.
They wrote that the meteor shower is the result of Earth moving into space debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. It takes the comet 33 years to orbit the sun once.
The second TV says that the meteor shower becomes more intense every 33 years, when the Earth gets closer to the comet. This last happened in 1999.
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