Fireballs shoot across sky as Leonid meteor shower peaks

Catch the meteor shower at its peak.
 By 
Sasha Lekach
 on 
Fireballs shoot across sky as Leonid meteor shower peaks
Try to catch the meteor shower. Credit: Yonhap/Epa/REX/Shutterstock

The Leonids meteor shower has been active for the past two weeks and this weekend the cosmic debris show is hitting its peak.

Leonids, named for the constellation Leo where the shower appears to originate from, started earlier this month and should give something of a show over the next few days. It's true peak appeared to be Friday morning -- early. It will continue until the beginning of December.

Already some impressive displays have lit up the night sky. This particular meteor shower occurs when crossing the debris of Comet Temple/Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 33 years.

Here's a fireball likely part of the shower, as seen in Finland. Another big streak can be seen in the video above.

And if the Leonids from earth wasn't impressive enough, here's an early meteor shower from space.

And although people were convinced it was aliens in Phoenix earlier this week, the blast of light was most likely part of this meteor shower.

Be sure to get out of city lights and into a truly dark spot between dusk and dawn to catch the meteoric sight -- best times are (really) early Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.

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