Post by Taxigirl on Nov 17, 2003 10:00:42 GMT
The annual Leonid meteors return to the night sky this week as the Earth passes through comet dust.
Experts predict that up to 100 Leonid shooting stars could be seen streaking through the sky every hour.
However, light from the moon will make the meteors hard to spot until about Wednesday.
This year's meteors are not expected to be as magnificent as last year's when 3,000 meteors per hour were seen over parts of Europe.
"It is unlikely to produce any real fireworks, but there is always a chance that there may be a sudden burst of activity, and the dedicated meteor watchers will be out there looking anyway," said Robin Scagell from the Society for Popular Astronomy.
The shooting stars are actually particles from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which measures 2.5 miles across and has a 33-year orbit around the Sun.
As the Earth passes through the cloud of dust left by the comet, these particles burn up in the atmosphere, creating the light streaks.
Most of the meteors are no bigger than a grain of rice and enter the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 65 kilometres per second (40 miles per second).
The Leonids appear every November.
They cannot be seen before 2300 GMT and the best time to spot them is about 0300 GMT or 0400 GMT.