Leonid meteor shower 2010 - when to watch, where you can look

It has been building for a week and now the Leonid meteor shower 2010 is ready for the grand finale. The best time to catch the Leonid meteor shower in the United States of America will be a few hours before daybreak on Thurs., November 18. Get up about three a.m. for the best show, when up to 12 Leonids per hour can be expected. The streaks of light within the sky are minute pieces of debris left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle that burn up when they meet the resistance of the atmosphere at incredible velocity.

Leonids spot and time

The Comet Tempel-Tuttle's trail of debris is something the earth is beginning to hit with the Leonid meteor shower 2010 hitting right before daybreak. You may want to look around 3 a.m. That is when the sky is the darkest after the moon has set. Try to find the constellation Leo within the southeast. Since it looks like the meteors come out of this point like a shower head, the point within the sky is called the "radiant".

Information on shooting stars

The Leonid meteor shower 2010 will take place due to comet debris rotating around the sun. It will go within the opposite direction of the Earth around the sun. The atmosphere is hit fairly fast by these meteors. about 45 miles per second is the speed. Going 1,000 meters per second is all about how fast the rifle bullet will go. Most of the meteors are about the size of a grain of sand. The particles simply are vaporizing the sky. This is exactly what leads to a streak of light that will stay for a moment.

World ending

Although the Leonids are one of the more spectacular annual meteor showers, this yr their frequency of about a dozen per hour is relatively low. There was about 1,000 an hour from 1992 to 20002 for the Leonids. The atmosphere had about 10,000 per hour vaporizing in 1996. Individuals were scared of the meteors in 1833 before they knew what they were. They came down like rain for the Leonids. The sky had been so bright with shooting stars that individuals were roused from rest, terrified that the planet had been coming to a conclusion.

Articles cited

Astronomy.com

astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2010/11/Leonid%20meteor%20shower%202010.aspx

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/40033447/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Space.com

space.com/scienceastronomy/top10_leonidsfacts-6.html