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The Leonids are Coming! The Leonids are Coming!

A memorable light show or just a bracing shower?

This Nov. 17, Earth makes its closest approach in 33 years to Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, but it isn't clear how dramatic the annual light show put on by its trail of dusty debris — the Leonid meteoroids — will prove to be.

 

References:

Steel, D. 1998. The Leonid meteors: Compositions and consequences. Astronomy & Geophysics (October).

Yeomans, D.K., K.K. Yau, and P.R. Weissman. 1996. The impending appearance of Comet Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid meteors. Icarus 124:407.

 

Further Readings:

Cowen, R. 1997. Leonids: The coming storm. Science News 151(June 14):371.

 

Sources:

Peter Brown
University of Western Ontario
Department of Astronomy
London, Ontario N6A 3K7
Canada

Brian G. Marsden
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Duncan Steel
Spaceguard Australia P/L
P.O. Box 3303
Rundle Mall
Adelaide SA 5000
Australia

Donald K. Yeomans
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125

From Science News, Vol. 154, No. 18, October 31, 1998, p. 280.
Copyright Ó 1998 by Science Service.

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