A Leonid Meteor Explodes

Last night and tonight, a lucky few may see a meteor explode. As our Earth passes unusually close to debris expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle , many sand-sized particles from this comet are entering and burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. This yearly phenomenon is known as the Leonids Meteor Shower , but the location the Earth passes through this year holds promise to provide relatively high activity . In particular, the 1998 Leonids was noteworthy for its many bright meteors . In the above slow-loading sequence , a 1998 Leonid was caught exploding over Los Alamos, New Mexico . In the last one-minute exposure, another Leonid streaks past.