Leonid meteor shower to dazzle Sri Lankan skies today

The Leonid meteor shower, the largest meteor shower visible in 2025 can be observed at midnight today (16) and early tomorrow morning, says Astronomer and Senior Lecturer Gihan Weerasekara.

The Leonids are lots of fast and bright shooting stars racing through the sky.

They take their name from the Leo constellation because they seem to shoot from it.

The shower happens every year because of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle.

The comet takes 33 years to go round the sun, and as it travels it leaves a dusty trail of bits of broken asteroids and leftover comet particles.

When the Earth passes through this path it causes streaks of light in our atmosphere, which is what we call meteors.

Senior Lecturer Gihan Weerasekara noted that the meteor shower can be observed very clearly between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Expressing his views, Senior Lecturer Gihan Weerasekara said:

“Tonight and early tomorrow morning, we will be able to observe one of the main meteor showers of the year. This meteor shower is called the Leonids. The reason for the name is that it is usually visible in the direction of the Leo constellation.

When the Earth travels through the path of a comet, the tiny dust particles that have separated from the comet interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, creating this meteor shower.

A special feature of this meteor shower is that these dust particles travel at a relatively higher speed. Due to this high-speed interaction with the atmosphere, the meteors appear brighter.

This meteor shower rises from the eastern sky and moves across the sky during the night — especially toward dawn. Therefore, the best time to observe it is usually between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.

During this period, if we observe the sky, we can typically see about 15 to 20 meteors per hour.”