Leonids

SO there were supposed to be the Leonids a few days ago. Somehow didn't hear much about it in the news. This year Leonids were supposed to be huge with a meteor rate of nearly 500 meteors per hour for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, at the place where I stay the sky was overcast and it was freezing outside. So I didn't see even a single meteor.

When you talk about Leonids, its imperative to mention temple-tuttle. Tempel-tuttle is a short period comet with a period of 33 years. But its a tiny non-impressive comet that is almost not seen by the naked eye when it enters the inner solar system. But what seems to be interesting is the dust it leaves behind. The dust belt that's left behind by the comet drifts away from the sun and eventually reaches earth's orbit. When earth passes through this best, we see the dust particles as meteors in the sky. Actually its more of dust, icy pebbles and other normal comet material.

One thing that I found very interesting is that scientists have actually observed each dust path that is left behind by the comet. This year's showers were apparently the dust left behind by the comet somewhere in 1533. Now that's some cool astronomy!