Sky Watch: Week of January 18
Joe Rao

The vast majority of comets perform like the faint, fuzzy blob of the comet 
Tempel-Tuttle now making its closest approach to Earth since 1865. All 
comets are cosmic litterbugs that leave trails of dust particles along 
their orbit. Astronomers believe that an unusually dense river of rubble 
stretches a billion miles or more behind Tempel-Tuttle and will take at 
least three years to pass us completely. Earth grazes this comet's orbit 
annually in mid-November, resulting in the Leonid meteor shower. Since 
Tempel-Tuttle is currently sweeping through the inner solar system, there 
is a chance that Earth will encounter the dense rubble left in the comet's 
wake from previous visits. In 1833, 1866 and 1966, Earth apparently 
interacted with these densely clustered particles, resulting in meteor 
storms. This comet may yet leave another beautiful legacy, in the form 
of a spectacular display of shooting stars in November of this year 
(or 1999 or 2000).

[There is a cycle of about every 33 years having a larger than normal 
rate of shooting stars when it is then classified as a "meteor shower." 
The name of this comet is what is most interesting at this point.--Moza]