Leo Releases a Meteor Shower

Tonight there will be a really awesome star show — a Leonid meteor shower — but if you're in the US or Europe, you sadly won't be able to see it. According to National Geographic, the peak of the action will occur at 4:45 pm EST, which means it won't be dark enough to rock your star-gazing binoculars.

That means, however, that if you're in Asia, you had the chance to see the peak of the show in the early morning today before sunrise. Too bad this article wasn't posted in time to let you know. Here's an awesome map of the visibility of the peak of the shower.

The Leonid meteors are named after the constellation Leo, the lion, from which they appear to radiate. Meteor showers are the result of Earth moving through the trail of debris that a comet has left behind as it orbits the sun. The comet that creates the Leonid shower, called Tempel-Tuttle, leaves uneven clumps of debris in its wake, which means that the Leonids sometimes offer a sparse shower and sometimes a spectacular display.

Which will it be this afternoon? Too bad I won't be able to tell.

Photo courtesy of jaredten, via Flickr