Leonids from Leo
			
		
		
			Credit:  
 Credit & Copyright:  
Chen Huang-Ming
		
		
			Is Leo leaking?  Leo, the famous sky constellation visible on the left of the 
above all-sky photograph, 
appears to be the source of all the 
meteors seen in last year's 
Leonids Meteor Shower.  
That 
Leonids point back to 
Leo is not a surprise - it is the reason that this November 
meteor shower 
is called the Leonids.  
Sand-sized debris expelled from 
Comet Tempel-Tuttle 
follows a well-defined orbit about our Sun, 
and the part of the orbit that approaches 
Earth 
is superposed in front of the constellation Leo.  
Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of 
falling debris appears in Leo.  
Over 100 bright
meteors can be seen in the above half-hour exposure.  
The intensity of the 
Leonid Meteor Shower in 2002 is uncertain 
but may approach one per second for 
some locations on November 18 and 19.