{"id":280778,"date":"2025-11-13T17:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/280778\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T17:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:01:09","slug":"leonid-meteor-shower-nears-november-2025-peak-when-it-is-everything-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/280778\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonid meteor shower nears November 2025 peak. When it is, everything to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get ready, skygazers: Another major meteor shower is about to hit its peak<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

The Leonid meteor shower<\/a>, which first became active at the beginning of November, is due to peak in activity for two nights in the days ahead. The Leonid meteors, which occur annually as Earth passes through cosmic<\/a> debris from comet 55P\/Tempel-Tuttle, are not known for producing an abundance of meteors, colloquially referred to as “shooting stars.”<\/p>\n

But the Leonids should dazzle spectators with their brightness, color and speed. In fact, Leonid meteors are considered to be some of the fastest of the year.<\/p>\n

And in 2025, the Leonid meteor shower will provide an encore of sorts after the northern lights dazzled in an earlier celestial light show<\/a> across much of the United States.<\/p>\n

Leonid meteor shower approaches peak November activity. Past photos of ‘shooting stars’<\/p>\n

1 of 6<\/p>\n

A burst of 1999 Leonid meteors as seen at 38,000 feet from Leonid Multi Instrument Aircraft Campaign (Leonid MAC) with 50 mm camera.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything to know about the Leonid meteor shower, and its impending peak \u2013 visible from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.<\/p>\n

When is the Leonid meteor shower?<\/p>\n

The Leonid meteor shower already became active in 2025 beginning Nov. 6, and is expected to remain so until at least Nov. 30, according to the\u00a0American Meteor Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leonid meteor shower 2025: Here’s when, what time, activity peaks<\/p>\n

In 2025,\u00a0the Leonid meteor shower is set to peak between Sunday, Nov. 16, and Monday, Nov. 17, according to\u00a0the Planetary Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The best time to see meteors are typically between midnight and pre-dawn hours. Visit the website TimeAndDate.com<\/a> to find the best times and viewing directions for your location.<\/p>\n

How many meteors will be visible? What to know about meteor shower rate<\/p>\n

Observed under dark skies, the Leonids may produce anywhere from about three to 15 meteors per hour that whiz across that sky at nearly 44 miles per second.<\/p>\n

The Leonid shower is also known for producing larger, brighter explosions of light known as fireballs that persist longer than a typical meteor streak, as well as so-called “Earth-grazers,” according to NASA<\/a>. These meteors earned their nickname because they have long and colorful tails that streak closer to the horizon, NASA says.<\/p>\n

Will the Leonids produce a meteor storm?<\/p>\n

The Leonid shower is famous for producing meteor storms \u2013 rare events where around a whopping 1,000 meteors can be seen within an hour, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

But don’t expect any meteor storms this year \u2013 or any year soon.<\/p>\n

In most years when the Leonids peak, it is not fresh material we see from the shower’s parent comet, but rather debris released from the comet’s earlier orbits of the sun that also happen to be most dense at the same time, according to the American Meteor Society. Meteor storms only occur when the shower’s parent comet makes its closest approach to the sun \u2013 an event known as perihelion\u00a0\u2013 about once every 33 years, releasing fresh material that the Earth then passes through.<\/p>\n

The last Leonid meteor storm occurred in 2002, but\u00a0“it appears that the Earth will not encounter any dense clouds of debris until 2099,” according to the meteor society. Still, when the comet next reaches perihelion in 2031 and crosses Earth’s path that same year, it may still unleash more active Leonid shower displays.<\/p>\n

Could the moon interfere with Leonids?<\/p>\n

In 2025, a waning old crescent moon will only be 9% full during the peak of the Leonids, meaning it will be too dim to interfere with the view of the streaking meteors.<\/p>\n

How to see Leonids: Tips for seeing streaking meteors<\/p>\n

Though named after Leo because the meteors seem to emerge \u2013 or radiate \u2013 from the same area in the sky as the constellation,\u00a0NASA advises<\/a>\u00a0stargazers to look away from the constellation to get the best views. The Leonids should be visible across the night sky and will appear with a longer tail to spectators who view them away from their radiant.<\/p>\n

Here are some general viewing tips from the space agency:<\/p>\n

Find an area far away from street lights and the light pollution of cities.<\/p>\n

Come prepared for winter temperatures with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair.<\/p>\n

Lie flat on your back with your feet facing the east and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible.<\/p>\n

It should take less than 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt so that you can see streaking meteors. But be patient, NASA warns: The show will last until dawn.<\/p>\n

What causes the Leonids? Are meteor showers ‘shooting stars?’<\/p>\n

Meteor showers occur\u00a0when Earth passes through dusty debris trails left\u00a0by comets and other space objects as they orbit the sun.<\/p>\n

The debris \u2013 space rocks known as meteoroids \u2013 collides with Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and disintegrates, creating fiery and colorful streaks in the sky,\u00a0according to NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those resulting fireballs, better known as “shooting stars,” are meteors. If meteoroids survive their trip to Earth without burning up in the atmosphere, they are called meteorites,\u00a0NASA says.<\/p>\n

The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Leonids originate from\u00a055P\/Tempel-Tuttle<\/a>, a small comet named for the two men who discovered it independently in 1865 and 1866, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

What other meteor showers are happening in 2025?<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at other meteor showers coming up in 2025, including the date range that they’re active and when they’ll peak.<\/p>\n

Geminids, active Dec. 1-21; peaks Dec. 13-14.<\/p>\n

Ursids, active Dec. 16-26; peaks Dec. 21-22.<\/p>\n

The Quadrantids will also begin in 2025 on Dec. 26, but the shower will not peak until Jan. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Leonid meteor shower peaks next week. Here’s everything to know<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get ready, skygazers: Another major meteor shower is about to hit its peak in November. The Leonid meteor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[39690,49,48,127897,127898,7779,307,66,11735],"class_list":{"0":"post-280778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-american-meteor-society","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-leonid-meteor-shower","12":"tag-leonid-shower","13":"tag-meteor-shower","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-shooting-stars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}