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Explanation: Beautiful and bright, the 2002 Leonid meteors battled
against glaring
moonlight. This winning example, from Tuesday morning skies above Laughlin,
Nevada, USA, finds an undaunted Leonid
streaking between the familiar constellation of Orion
(left) and an overexposed full Moon. As anticipated, the Leonid shower packed a double
punch on November 19 with planet Earth plunging through two dense clouds of
meteroids, dusty debris left by the passage of comet Tempel-Tuttle. Some
European observers reported 10 or so meteors a minute during the first peak near
4:00 Universal Time while North American skygazers witnessed slightly lower
rates near the second peak around 10:30 UT. Overall, observed rates were much
lower than last year's Leonid meteor storm, but for many the sky was still filled with a
rewarding
spectacle of bright meteors. And that performance may be a fond farewell for
years to come. The annual
Leonid meteor shower will not likely approach even these rates again until
the end of this century. |
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Site Manager:
Alain Khayat |
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