“This 12 months, the Leonid meteor bathe is timed nearly completely with a brand new moon…”
WALTER PACHOLKA, ASTROPICS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
There’s something magical about watching a meteor bathe. A part of that is right down to the bathe’s unpredictability – the situations can seem excellent, but you should still find yourself underwhelmed, particularly if you find yourself promised a whole lot of meteors an hour. However then there are occasions while you collect associates round to benefit from the present collectively, and you might be completely satisfied to see only a handful of capturing stars.
This 12 months, the Leonid meteor bathe is timed nearly completely with a brand new moon, giving us an exquisite probability to see loads of meteors zipping throughout the sky. There is probably not a whole lot every hour, however I’d nonetheless suggest attempting to take a look.
Meteor showers occur at about the identical time yearly, as a result of they coincide with Earth’s path across the solar bringing us by patches of particles left behind by passing comets and asteroids. This causes extra items of mud than standard to enter our environment, the place they fritter away within the vibrant flashes of meteors.
The Leonid meteor bathe comes from the mud left behind by Tempel-Tuttle, a comet 3.6 kilometres in diameter that orbits the solar each 33 years. When it comes shut by, the Leonids develop into a meteor storm fairly than a meteor bathe, with hundreds of meteors seen each hour. The final storm was in 2002, so we will’t anticipate one other for 10 years.
Even so, there ought to be an ideal probability to see meteors just like the one pictured in case you are fortunate sufficient to have clear skies. The Leonid meteor bathe begins on 6 November and can be energetic till the top of the month, however the peak is on the night of 17 November, into the morning of the 18th. November’s new moon is on the twentieth, so on the night of the bathe’s peak, will probably be a really skinny waning crescent. The most effective time to look can be simply after midnight native time, wherever you reside on the earth. In contrast with different meteor showers, the Leonids are likely to have a gradual peak, so it’s price wanting on the times across the seventeenth you probably have a transparent night time on both aspect.
Meteor showers are named after the constellation the meteors seem to return from within the sky, however this doesn’t imply you need to discover Leo to see the Leonids. Leo is a simple constellation to identify, although, and is seen from many of the world, aside from extraordinarily southern latitudes. To seek out Leo, search for its iconic backwards query mark, or sickle sample. Will probably be close to the Plough, or Huge Dipper, within the sky. Should you want further assist discovering it, you need to use an app in your telephone.
To finest take pleasure in a meteor bathe, first get heat and cozy. The present can contain sitting nonetheless for a very long time, so I like to recommend a sizzling water bottle and a strategy to search for with out hurting your neck. Get as removed from mild air pollution as you possibly can. However if you wish to look from your own home, flip off the lights and let your eyes regulate. Get pleasure from!
These articles are posted every week at
newscientist.com/maker
Abigail Beall is a options editor at New Scientist and creator of The Artwork of City Astronomy. Observe her @abbybeall
