The Leonids meteor shower will be visible over the US this weekend

The Leonids meteor shower has been active since early November, but peak activity is expected this weekend at 00:33 a.m. ET on Saturday, November 18th. Spectators will be able to observe 10 to 15 meteors per hour. The publication told in more detail CNN.

Photo: IStock

According to Dr. Sharon Morsink, a professor of physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, those who want to see meteors from this shower are in luck: the Moon will be in its waxing crescent phase, and the light interference will not be as strong as with a full Moon. On the night of the shower's peak, the moon will be 23% occupied, according to the American Meteor Society.

Although the shower peaks on Saturday, November 18, a similar number of meteors will be visible in the days before and after it. The best time to view the meteor shower is after midnight in any time zone, when the constellation Leo will be highest in the sky, said Morsink, who directs the university's astronomical observatory. Leo is the meteor shower's radiant, which is the point from which the phenomenon appears to originate, she explained.

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“The most important thing is to get away from light pollution,” Morsink said. “If you're in a city, you might still see a few meteors, but they won't be nearly as many as you'd see if you were outside the city.”

Meteor storms caused by the Leonids

The Leonids are known for causing meteor storms, which is the name given to a shower that reaches speeds of at least 1000 meteors per hour, according to NASA.

According to the American Meteor Society, the Leonids set the record for the most meteors per hour in a meteor shower in 1966, with 144. The shower also showed higher speeds in 000 and 1999, but the society does not expect another storm until 2001, when Earth , is predicted to collide with a dense cloud of debris from its parent comet Tempel-Tuttle.

As a comet moves around the Sun, it leaves behind a trail of rocks and dust. It manifests itself in the form of the annual Leonid meteor shower, and the Earth, being on its orbital trajectory, passes through this trail.

Although no storm is forecast for this year, Morsink said there is always a chance of seeing more meteors than expected.

“It’s always exciting to go outside and see any meteor shower for the first time,” she noted. “It’s just an interesting connection that we have with the entire solar system: here is a comet, far away from us, that orbits the sun for an incredibly long period, probably billions of years.” For us, it’s a way of connecting with something that is very far away.”

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Meteor showers have not yet peaked this year

According to the American Meteor Society, Leonid meteors will remain in the sky until the end of the shower on December 2. If you want to see more, here are the rest of the meteor showers that will peak in 2023:

• Geminids: December 13-14
• Ursids: December 21-22

Additionally, according to Farmers' Almanac, there will be two full moons in 2023:

• November 27: Beaver Moon
• December 26: Cold Moon.

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