NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

› View Vodcast The Aurigid Meteor Shower, September 1, 2007

Best viewing: Between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. PDT

Peak: 4:33 a.m. PDT

(ANIMATION: EARTH IS ON LEFT. LIGHT REPRESENTING COMET IS ON RIGHT.)

A meteor shower occurs when small pieces of comet dust collide with the Earth's atmosphere. (ANIMATION SHOWS METEORS FALLING TOWARDS EARTH.)

This shower gets its name because the meteors appear to originate in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

(VIDEO SHOWING LEONID METEORS AS SEEN BY SPECIAL CAMERA.)

The Leonids, meteors originating from Leo the Lion (captured with an image-intensified camera.)

CLOSING SLATES:

To view the Aurigids, find a dard area with a clear view of the sky.

Look to the east and northeast.

Estimates call for approximately 200 meteors per hour.

For more information, please visit:

http://aurigids.seti.org.

CLOSING CREDITS:

NASA LOGO

Produced by the NASA Ames Video Production Group.
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
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