Earth and the Leonids Meteors

Earth and the Leonids

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leonids_balloon_sml.jpg (2367 bytes)

See a live video Webcast of the Leonids from a NASA weather balloon! Exclusively at LeonidsLive.com.

The above 533 KB QuickTime simulation illustrates the relationship during the Leonids meteor shower between the earth, comet Tempel-Tuttle's dust field, and the constellation of Leo. The size of the earth and sun have been exaggerated for clarity. When the earth passes through Tempel-Tuttle's dust field every November 17-18, the dust particles stream into our atmosphere and burn up as meteors. The red arrow during the simulation indicates that a ground-based observer would perceive the meteors as coming from a point (called the "radiant") within Leo, hence the name Leonids.

After the movie stops playing, you can drag the movie's scroll-bar to view specific images in the simulation. Credit: Digital Radiance.