Leonids from Leo

Leonids from Leo



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 1998'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 150 meteors can be seen in the above four-hour effort. The Leonids Meteor Shower of 2003 is expected to have two peaks,the first three days ago and the second a long-duration peak covering much of November 19. Although visible meteor rates might approach one per minute, they are predicted to be much less than in the previous few years.

LL Orionis When Cosmic Winds Collide

LL Orionis When Cosmic Winds Collide



This arcing, graceful structure is actually abow shock about half alight-year across, created as the wind from young star LL Orioniscollides with th Orion Nebula flow.Adrift in Orion' stellar nurseryand still in its formative years,variable star LL Orionis produces a wind moreenergetic tha the wind from our ownmiddle-aged sun.As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front isformed, analogous to th bowwave of a boat moving through water ora plane traveling at supersonic speed.The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central starcluster, th Trapezium, located off the lower right hand edgeof the picture.In threedimensions,LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like abowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge The complexstellar nursery in Orion shows a myriad of simila fluid shapes associated wit star formation, includingthe bow shock surrounding a faint star at the upper right.Part o a mosaic covering the Great Nebulain Orion, this composite color image was recordedin 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Jupiter Portrait

Jupiter Portrait



Every day is a cloudy da onJupiter, th SolarSystem's reigning gas giant.And swirlin cloud tops are all you see inthis stunningly detailedtrue color image, a portion of a large digita mosaic portrait of Jupiter recordedfrom the Cassini spacecraft during it Jovianflyby in December 2000.The smallest features visible are about 60 kilometers across.Jupiter's composition is dominated by hydrogen an the clouds containhydrogen compounds like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and even water.A truly giant planet Jupiter's diameter is over 11 timesthe diameter of Earth and the smallest storms visible inthe Cassini Jupiter portrait are similar in size to largeterrestrial hurricanes Nowtraveling beyond Jupiter, th Cassini spacecraft is scheduledto reach the Saturnian system in July of 2004.

Aurora Oklahoma

Aurora Oklahoma



Nestled in the central US, the state of Oklahomais noted for it gorgeous prairieskies and wide-open spaces,but not for frequent visitations o thenorthern lights.Still, following the intens solar activity late lastmonth, aurora did come sweeping down the Oklahoma plains an skywatcherDave Ewoldt managed to catch up withthis photogenic apparition 40 miles northwest ofOklahoma City at about 3am CST o October 29.Anticipatin aurora sightings, Ewoldthad spent the eveningphotographing nighttimeviews of small towns in the area whilekeeping an eye toward the north He reports,"I was just about ready to call it a night when theshow started. When it did, it was like someone turned on a lightswitch.I wish it would have lasted longer... [it] seemed like it wascompletely done in about 25 minutes."Watery reflections of the colorful show highlight the foregroundin the stunning image while stars of the Big Dipper and the northernsky shine behind the dazzlin Oklahomaauroral display. Skywatchers' note: First of tw Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight.