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Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend

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Leonids

The Leonid meteor shower is an annual mid-November event and will be peaking this weekend November 16 and 17. Unfortunately at the same time, there will be a full moon which will flood the sky with light and lessen the chances of seeing most of the shower, and this year is expected to have low activity, only about 10 to 20 meteors per hour, if that.  For best viewing chances, the “traditional” times are midnight to dawn. This year, it’s being said that 5am ET Sunday will be the peak time to check it out.

Leonids get their name from the constellation Leo and are associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. When the comet passes the solar system every 33.3 years, and gets closest to the sun, it leaves a trail of debris behind. The Earth then comes in contact with that debris, which creates the meteor shower.

 

A Incredible View of The Stars From Space

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Looking up at the night sky reminds us of how small we really are compared to the vastness of the universe but our view down here on the Earth’s surface doesn’t compare to the view the Space Station crew has.

This video shows off not only an amazing view of Earth, which we tend to focus on the most, but also it showcases the stars and even the Milky Way galaxy. Notice how the video captures the lights from the cites, the lightning from storms and the auroras high up in the atmosphere, which looks incredibly thin.

Catch The Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight and Tomorrow

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Meteors in the Night Sky

On August 11th (tonight) and 12th, you can look up at the night sky to witness the peak of the Perseid meteor shower.

Streaks of light will appear across the sky as massive amounts of space dust enter the atmosphere. Earth is moving through a part of it’s orbit that contains tons of debris leftover from the comet  Swift-Tuttle, this “dust” enters our atmosphere and burns up rapidly, creating the light show we see here on the Earth’s surface.  The name of the meteor shower derives from the word Perseides, referring to the sons of Perseus from Greek Mythology.

This shower is nothing new however, it’s been observed for thousands of years, in fact it’s first observation dates back to 36 AD!

Don’t have a clear view of the night sky? No worries, Slooh has you covered, you can watch the feed below.

 

 

Earth and Moon As Seen From Saturn

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Earth as seen From Saturn, PhotoTaken by Cassini on July 19th 2013. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

It’s not too often that we see our world from afar but when we do it’s truly an amazing and humbling experience. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was able to get into position next to the great planet of Saturn and take a look back at Earth from 900 million miles away. The image is in color and in high resolution, Earth is nothing but a blue dot with a small white dot next to it, that white dot is the Moon of course. Saturn’s rings reflect sunlight towards the camera and against the black backdrop of outer space, it looks truly beautiful.

Cassini’s picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth.” Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

As NASA points out, pictures like these are very rare because Earth appears very close to the sun at that distance and trying to take a picture could ruin the camera’s sensitive electronics with that much sunlight hitting it. This is just one section of an image that will become a mosaic of Saturn’s rings. You can read the original article and see a full-resolution version of this image from NASA.

 

Chris Hadfield Leaves the ISS With A Cover Song

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Commander Chris Hadfield has made an awesome video, actually he’s made quite a few awesome videos, but in this last one he says goodbye to the International Space Station as he gets ready to land back on Earth by creating an performing an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. The video offers something to this song that no other video can and it fits his situation perfectly, it simply captures the moment and the view of Earth is stunning.

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The International Space Station (Credit: NASA)