First star I see tonight – The 2009 Leonid meteor shower just happened in the early morning hours of Tuesday, November 17th, 2009.
A meteor shower is basically tons of shooting or falling stars in the sky. The streaks of light that fly across the sky are tiny bits of rock from space, according to geology.com. The friction with air molecules heats up the rocks to make them glow so much. Believe it or not, they are smaller than a grain of rice usually and usually burn up in a couple seconds. The ones that are especially bright are called bolides. They are usually the ones that catch your eye the most.
During the Leonid meteor shower, you may have been able to see anywhere from 30 to 300 shooting stars an hour according to National Geographic News. This is depending on if you were in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, the peak of this meteor was at about 4:45 p.m., leaving it invisible for people in North America and Europe to see. If you went out of town to watch the shower, you definitely were able to see plenty of shooting stars. Enough to get in a few wishes at least.
It was called Leonids shower this year because, they were supposedly radiating from the constellation Leo, the lion. Other previous important meteor showers were named, Perseids and the Orionids. Meteor showers are very nice to look at and watch, even if you are not into science. It is almost surreal watching hundreds of shooting stars, when at other times of the year you freak out if you see just one shooting star. I don’t know if I would be wishing on meteor showers though, because just think of how many other people may be wishing on that same star you were. I guess it could be a test to find out just how lucky you really are. How many of you watched the meteor shower this year?
A meteor shower is basically tons of shooting or falling stars in the sky. The streaks of light that fly across the sky are tiny bits of rock from space, according to geology.com. The friction with air molecules heats up the rocks to make them glow so much. Believe it or not, they are smaller than a grain of rice usually and usually burn up in a couple seconds. The ones that are especially bright are called bolides. They are usually the ones that catch your eye the most.
During the Leonid meteor shower, you may have been able to see anywhere from 30 to 300 shooting stars an hour according to National Geographic News. This is depending on if you were in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, the peak of this meteor was at about 4:45 p.m., leaving it invisible for people in North America and Europe to see. If you went out of town to watch the shower, you definitely were able to see plenty of shooting stars. Enough to get in a few wishes at least.
It was called Leonids shower this year because, they were supposedly radiating from the constellation Leo, the lion. Other previous important meteor showers were named, Perseids and the Orionids. Meteor showers are very nice to look at and watch, even if you are not into science. It is almost surreal watching hundreds of shooting stars, when at other times of the year you freak out if you see just one shooting star. I don’t know if I would be wishing on meteor showers though, because just think of how many other people may be wishing on that same star you were. I guess it could be a test to find out just how lucky you really are. How many of you watched the meteor shower this year?
I am in astronomy class right now, and we were actually outside for lab that night. It was not quite as cool as the picture you show, but I would say that while we were outside observing the stars, we probably saw 20 or so "shooting stars" over a period of about an hour and a half. There was even one that seemed to have a green glow to it and it was much brighter than the rest of them.
ReplyDeleteKelsi,
ReplyDeleteI was so sad that I missed this! I was really looking forward to it and then for some reason I completely forgot. I’m assuming you witnessed it yourself. How long do meteor showers typically last? I was also wondering when the next one would be. I think I heard someone say 5000 years. Obviously I’ll be dead by then and that will probably be the last thing on my mind. None the less I think it would be really cool to see.