Khaberni - The sky of Jordan will witness a shower of the Leonids on Monday/Tuesday night, which is considered relatively weak this year, because the peak time of the showers occurs when the radiant center is below the horizon from Jordan's geographical location, according to Ammar Al-Sakaji, the president of the Jordanian Astronomical Society.
Al-Sakaji said that these meteor showers are active from November 6 to November 30 of this year, and the best times to view these meteors are just before dawn on Tuesday, when they can be observed in most regions of Jordan and the Arab region, especially in areas far from light pollution like deserts and rural areas, and with the suitable astronomical conditions of clear skies, low light pollution, dust, fog, and clouds, especially since the moon will be in a crescent phase at the end of the month, so it does not affect viewing, but clouds are expected to slightly affect the observation processes for this night.
According to studies by the International Meteor Organization, about 10–15 meteors or fireballs per hour can be seen at peak time, under ideal conditions, since it is a meteor shower, not a storm, and the meteors appear from the direction of the constellation Leo, emphasizing that the meteors can be seen in various directions in the sky.
The radiant center of the Leonid shower will rise at 11:55 PM on Monday, Jordan time, at an angle of 63 degrees towards the northeast, whereas the best time for viewing is between 4 and 5 AM from the east.
The first light of the sun begins to show through the astronomical twilight at 5:42 AM on Tuesday, followed by the nautical twilight at 6:11 AM, then the civil twilight at 6:41 AM, culminating in sunrise at 7:07 AM, in and around the city of Amman, with these values varying slightly from one area to another, where the possibility of observing meteors declines due to the increasing light glow.
The Jordanian Astronomical Society has a long history in monitoring meteor showers and storms since last century, documenting these phenomena through its permanent camp in Azraq, one of the oldest astronomical camps in the Arab region, and in November 1999, the International Meteor Organization chose Jordan as one of the best locations in the world to observe the Leonid meteor storm, and at that time, the society organized a camp and an international conference attended by experts and astronomers from various countries, during which scientific studies documenting this phenomenon were published.
The Leonid meteor shower is a distinctive astronomical phenomenon that occurs when remnants of comets and microscopic meteors enter the atmosphere between altitudes of 70 and 100 kilometers, where they burn and ionize the air, thus appearing as meteors, without any danger, and the intensity of these meteors increases when associated with a specific comet that recurs in a known temporal cycle, providing them a fixed radiant center in the sky.
Meteors typically result from small particles the size of a lentil moving in the same path as the comet at high speed, while larger particles the size of a bean appear as bright, colorful fireballs, which are harmless as they completely burn up in the upper atmosphere, according to Al-Sakaji.
The comet responsible for the Leonids is the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which completes an orbit around the sun every 33 years, independently discovered by Willem Tempel on December 19, 1865, and Horace Parnell Tuttle on January 6, 1866, and the orbit of the comet near perihelion in 2031 will not be a meteor storm, but it is expected that we may witness rates close to 100 meteors per hour.
