Celestia Forums

As we may all know, in november we will have the leonids. I read that we will have two leonids this year. one on the 13rd and the second on the 19th.
We see the leonids when the earth passes through the "garbage" that the comet that i just cant remember the name(it somethinf like temple-tuttle right?) left behind, so it means that earth passes through its orbit.
ok, so my question is: is this comet still orbiting the sun? if it does, is there a possibility that in many years it will crash on earth??

ElPelado wrote: is this comet still orbiting the sun?

Of course it is, unless crashed on another planet... It could be no more a comet, however. Only an asteroid, if volatile matter is completely wasted.

if it does, is there a possibility that in many years it will crash on earth??

There is always the remote possibility. Although it's current orbit could be predicted to no intersect with the earth in the (near) future , orbits can be altered by the influence of other planet (Jupiter, for example).

More seriously...

The comet involved is said to be 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. More information here:
http://sci2.esa.int/leonids/leonids99/faq.html

http://www.geocities.com/vodickar/HistoryOfLeonids.htm

The last pass of this comet is reported at 1998.

PS: The Swift-Tuttle comet (parent of the Perseids) is believed to pass very near to the earth in a near future; see here for more info.

PS (2): This page has information in both english&spanish (with images):


http://www.skylook.net/nav/indexn.htm (This guy is born in my city!!)