The Leonids

meteor shower in November · dust from Comet Tempel-Tuttle

0.15 AU from Earth

Comet Tempel-Tuttle, 3.6 km across, returns every 33 years and leaves fresh trails of dust; when Earth hits one, the November Leonids become a storm, as in 1966, when thousands of meteors a minute fell over the western US. At about 70 km/s they are the fastest of the big yearly showers.

• the dust stream along Comet Tempel-Tuttle's orbit (spread drawn illustratively)
• Earth crosses it around 17 November · about 15 meteors an hour in most years
• the densest dust trails close to the comet bring the storms

Numbers that change with time are from 8 November 2026.

kind

comet or meteor shower

distance

0.98 AU from the Sun

orbits

the Sun