METEORS 2 LST

The comet, 55p/Tempel-Tuttle, was discovered on
December 19, 1865, by E W Liebrecht Tempel and by H P Tuttle
independently on January 6, 1866. The comet's orbit is so
oriented that its trail of debris almost exactly intercepts
Earth. The comet thus comes quite close to the Earth when they
cross each other.

The best locations to view the Leonids outburst would
be India, Nepal, Thailand, Western China, Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, Eastern Iran and South Central Russia among
others.
Meteors, also called shooting stars, are startling
streaks of light that suddenly appear in the sky when a dust
particle from outer space evaporates high in the Earth's
atmosphere.
Most visible Leonids are between one mm and one cm in
diameter, Devgun said. A Leonid meteor, barely visible to the
naked eye in a dark sky, is caused by a meteoroid of 0.5 mm in
diameter and weights only 0.00006 gram.
Just before they enter the Earth's atmosphere, Leonid
debris travel at 71 kilometres per second, or 213 times as
fast as the speed of sound, Devgun added.
Usually, no sound is heard when a Leonid passes by,
however, a sonic boom is sometimes possible for very bright
Leonid meteors, called fireballs, Devgun said.
To watch Leonid, the best area would be a place where
light pollution is at its minimum, he said adding that the
best time would be around midnight. By then, LEO constellation
(radiant of Leonids) will be fairly high above the horizon. An
hour or two before dawn should be the best of all, he added.
PTI SG
ANU


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