Bangkok – A Leonid meteor shower will be visible in a clear night sky over all Thailand on Friday, November 17.
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) Director Saran Poshyachinda said the Leonid meteor shower will be visible over the sky in all parts of the country starting from midnight on Friday until dawn.
The meteor shower will be most visible from 2.00 a.m. until early Saturday morning over the northeastern sky near the Leo constellation which is the center of the shower.
Such natural phenomena are visible on moonless nights with 10-15 meteors per hour. The Leonid meteor shower is considered the brightest as the objects move through the earth’s atmosphere at the rate of 71 kilometers per second.
Saran suggested that observers should lay down face up to the sky to observe the meteor shower in a completely dark, open place as the center of the shower will be right overhead.
The NARIT chief added that Leonids were formed when meteoroids from the 55P/Tempel-Tuttle comet were ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporated under the heat of the Sun. They then fell into the path of Earth’s orbit and ignite due to friction with the atmosphere.
