Leonids
Sign in to saveThe Leonids ( ) are a prolific annual meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel–Tuttle, and are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to radiate from that point in the sky. The name is derived from Greek and Latin with the prefix Leo- referring to the constellation and the suffix -ids signifying that the meteor shower is the offspring of, descendant of, the constellation Leo.
AI overview
The Leonids are a meteor shower that occurs every year and is produced by dust particles from the comet Tempel–Tuttle, with the additional distinction of creating especially dramatic "meteor storms" roughly every 33 years. The shower gets its name because the meteors appear to come from the direction of the constellation Leo in the night sky.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Meteor shower.name
- Leonids
- Meteor shower.image
- 245px
- Meteor shower.caption
- A Leonid meteor during the peak of the Leonids in 2009
- Meteor shower.date
- 902 AD (first record)
- Meteor shower.parent
- 55P/Tempel–Tuttle
- Meteor shower.constellation
- Leo
- Meteor shower.peak
- 17 November
- Meteor shower.velocity
- 70–71
- Meteor shower.zhr
- 15
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
9 sectionsContents
- History
- 1800s
- 1900s
- 2000s
- In popular culture
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Leonids ( ) are a prolific annual meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel–Tuttle, and are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to radiate from that point in the sky. The name is derived from Greek and Latin with the prefix Leo- referring to the constellation and the suffix -ids signifying that the meteor shower is the offspring of, descendant of, the constellation Leo.
Earth moves through meteoroid streams left from passages of a comet. The streams consist of solid particles, known as meteoroids, normally ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun once within Jupiter's orbit. Due to the retrograde orbit of 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, the Leonids are fast moving streams which encounter the path of Earth and impact at . It is the fastest annual meteor shower. Larger Leonids which are about across have a mass of and are known for generating bright (apparent magnitude −1.5) meteors. An annual Leonid shower may deposit of particles across the entire planet.