Everything you need to know about the shower of bright and colorful shooting stars which will take place during the night from this Friday to Saturday
Shooting stars are back in our sky, with the annual passage of the Leonids. The peak is expected on the night of Friday November 17 from midnight, with a particularity this year, colorful meteors.
Up to fifteen shooting stars per hour: this is the magnificent spectacle that will be offered to astronomy enthusiasts on the night of this Friday 17 to Saturday 18 November.
Like every year in autumn, the Earth will encounter the Leonie swarm, a mass of dust made up of debris left by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle which passes through the solar system every 33 years.
These dusts, or meteorites, become luminous when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and form shooting stars which can travel at a speed greater than 70 kilometers per second, specifies Science and future.
If there are fewer of them this year than last year (several hundred at the peak of the period in 2022), NASA has specified that the shooting stars will be colored this year.
Look east
The American Meteor Society explains that the moon is in its waxing phase, and the sky will be much darker than last year, therefore favorable conditions for hoping to see shooting stars with the naked eye.
The ideal way to observe them is to avoid the light pollution of urban areas and to settle down, well covered, in a field in the countryside and look towards the east. You will also need to be patient to witness this phenomenon optimally because the rain in Léonies will not be visible before midnight.
Unfortunately, the sky in the northwestern half of France is expected to be covered in clouds, according to Météo France. But the East and the southern half of the country should be able to quietly observe this free fall spectacle.
Gn Fr tech
