Wonders in Space: #4 Meteor Showers

Yahoo News
Stunning nighttime displays of meteors caught the attention of stargazers this year. The Orionid shower in October and the Leonid in November saw meteors zip across the sky. (Tommy Eliassen/SPACE.com)

The night sky was alight with several meteor showers, including the Leonid in mid-November. As bits of space debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle vaporized in Earth's atmosphere, we had the pleasure of observing the resulting fireworks. They made their appearance in the skies around Leo the Lion, a constellation hanging just below the Big Dipper. The results were radiant and dazzling. But if you missed these brief but remarkable streaks in the sky, you can still catch the next batch of debris, the Geminids, heading our way mid-December.