Here They Come Again: The Leonids

[Gregg Lengling]

This week marks the beginning of the Leonid Shower - an annual event in which satellite operators and astronomical observers openly fret about what damage the meteors may cause to spacecraft ... only to find after it's done that it's more of a show than a disaster.

During the past few years, nothing major has happened to satellites and other spacecraft orbiting the earth when they were inundated by the Leonid meteors, which consist of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Some of the strongest showers have occurred in the past few years, and those events forced satellite operators to re-position spacecraft in order to avoid serious damage.

On the ground, the Leonids are a grand sight to watch. This year, astronomers predict two outbursts - one for Europe and another for North America and parts of northern South America. For U.S. watchers, most of Leonids can be seen in the Eastern sky.

The show is expected to peak in the early morning hours of Nov. 19.

For more on the Leonids, check out Space.com's Leonid Web page: http://www.space.com/leonids.