The annual Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak around November 17-18, bringing fast-moving shooting stars across the night sky. While sixty years ago the display produced 144,000 meteors per hour, observers this year face a much leaner display of roughly 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
Comet Tempel-Tuttle Leaves Debris Streams for Meteor Showers
The Leonid meteor shower originates from debris left behind by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Space reported that comet Tempel-Tuttle was as far from the sun as it can get back in September 2014, sitting at 1.84 billion miles (2.96 billion km) away.
Over the course of the last dozen years, the comet has slowly made its way toward the inner solar system, though it remains positioned 1.11 billion miles (1.79 billion km) from the sun, far past Saturn’s orbit.
For this year, however, the path intersects with scattered particles and bits likely loosened from the comet’s nucleus a millennium or two ago. DiscoverMooseJaw said that Leonid meteors travel at approximately 70 kilometres per second, entering the atmosphere at high speeds to produce bright streaks of light.
Experts Predict Peak Meteor Activity for Nov. 17-18
The annual Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak around Nov. 17-18, with approximately 10 to 15 meteors per hour possible under ideal conditions. According to Peter Brown and Margaret Campbell-Brown, who study meteors for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the maximum activity is expected to take place on November 18 at 00:00 hours UTC.
Russian meteor expert Mikhail Maslov places the peak about a third of a day earlier, at 16:00 UTC on November 17. Several weaker encounters with older debris trails are also predicted between November 17 and 19.
View the Meteor Shower with Naked Eyes
The first-quarter moon will set around midnight, providing darker conditions during the later hours of the night. Observers do not need to stare directly at the constellation Leo, as meteors can appear across the entire sky. Abigail Sadowski of Kalium Observatory, affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, highlighted the wide field of view required for these shooting stars.
“These are so huge. They take up such a huge portion of the sky that they’re best observed with the naked eye,” Sadowski told DiscoverMooseJaw.
Sadowski also said that winter conditions can offer clear viewing skies, though November temperatures require preparation.
“Please dress warmly,” Sadowski told DiscoverMooseJaw.
Inside Halton noted viewing guidelines across various regions, emphasizing that finding a dark location away from artificial lighting gives the best results. Leo does not start coming fully into view until after midnight, making the pre-dawn hours the ideal window for concentration.
Contrasting With the 1966 Storm
Sixty years ago, anticipation ran high for a heavy display following an unexpected surge of Leonid activity the previous year when the comet swept around the sun. “. . . the position of the comet is roughly what it was in 1833. So, a dramatic shower like the one that occurred in that year may yet be in the offing for 1966,” Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin, chief scientist at New York's Hayden Planetarium, said after examining the orbit.
While a planned viewing party in Central Park was obscured by cloudy skies, observers across the central and western U.S. witnessed unprecedented rates. At Kitt Peak in southern Arizona, thirteen amateur astronomers saw Leonids falling at a rate of 40 per second, totaling 144,000 per hour. Looking to future orbits, French meteor expert Jeremie Vaubaillon published a technical paper in 2005 forecasting Leonid activity up to 2100.
