Leonids Meteor Shower 

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• Every year in November, an annual meteor shower called the Leonids radiates out from the direction of the constellation of Leo in the sky.

• The shower is under way now as it lasts from 6 to 30 November. The peak activity this year is expected in the early morning of 17 November.

About Leonids Meteor Shower  

• Leonids Meteor Shower occurs when Earth passes through a trail left behind by the Tempel-Tuttle comet on its 33-year orbit around the Sun.

• The Leonids are also called fireballs and earthgazer meteors. Fireballs, because of their bright colours, and earthgazer, because they streak close to the horizon.

Meteor Shower 

• Meteor showers occur annually or at regular intervals as the Earth passes through the trail of dusty debris left by a comet.

• Meteor showers are usually named after a star or constellation that is close to where the meteors appear in the sky. 

Meteor Storm 

• A meteor storm should have at least 1,000 meteors per hour.

• In 1966, a Leonid storm offered views of thousands of meteors that fell through the Earth’s atmosphere per minute during a period of 15 minutes.

Meteors, Meteoroid, and Meteorite

• Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. 

• When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. 

• When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.