Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet Mars: Bill Cooke
Astronomers and stargazers are waiting the big moment when Leonid Meteors would be falling from the sky in their hundreds and thousands illuminating the sky. It would be an experience of a lifetime as spectacular fireworks in the night skies meteor showers called the Leonids were slated to begin in the wee hours of Wednesday, 17th November around 3.30 am.
Leonids prolific meteor showers linked with the comet 55p/Tempel-Tuttle are visible every year around November 17 when the Earth passes through the stream of debris left by the comet. The Indian subcontinent is best placed for the spectacle this year and a strong effusion, which could race upto 300 meteors per hour during the peak, was expected between 3-4am.
One group of about 30 amateur astronomers had some luck during their watch at the Siriska wildlife sanctuary, nearly 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of New Delhi counting 78 Leonids during a four-hour period. “There was no moon in the sky, which is good for observation,” “We could see flashes of light for almost 10 seconds as bright as star Sirius,” said Yogeshwar Kanu Aggarwal, a member of the Space Science Popularization Association of Communications and Educators.
All across Asia, viewers were awake until the early hours of Wednesday to catch a glimpse of the Leonids, which are bits of debris from the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Appearing like flashes of light in the sky, NASA scientists had projected there would be up to 300 raining down every hour compared to a typical night when there about eight an hour.
Scientist Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, said, “They will be a streak of light which is caused by the meteor burning up in the atmosphere adding that the meteors travel at 156,000 miles per hour. “When they hit the atmosphere, the ice or dust doesn’t last very long so it burns and leave a streak of light to mark its demise.”
“A remarkable feature of this year’s shower is that Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet Mars,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office on a NASA blog.
In Nepal, cloud and fog cover over much of the Himalayan nation blocked views of the meteor shower. Several people had traveled to a mountain resort at Nagarkot, northeast of Katmandu, and camped in hotels and even tents for the event. They endured the cold weather but the cloud and fog blocked their view.
In India, the northern zone will be best placed to watch the action and so the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), an NGO, is organising skygazing camps on Wednesday at Damdama Lake in Delhi and at two other places in north India.
The spectacle can be seen from November 14 till November 21. The peak usually occurs around 17 November. This year the peak is set to occur on 17th Nov night/18th morning at around 03:00 hrs. This year a huge shower is expected 100-200 meteors per hour during peak activity between 3-4am.
