Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

A Leonid Meteor Explodes

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 23, 1998 is “A Leonid Meteor Explodes,” an image. It is credited to Credit: ROTSE Team. The original explanation runs about 132 words.

A Leonid Meteor Explodes
Credit: ROTSE Team Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Click on the above image and watch a Leonid meteor explode. The tremendous heat generated by the collision of a small sand-bit moving at 70 kilometers/second with the Earth’s upper atmosphere causes the rock-fragment to heat up, glow brightly, and disintegrate.”

— APOD editors, November 23, 1998

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
November 23, 1998
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: ROTSE Team
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 132 words

All of November 1998 → · 1998 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Meteors

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: November 23 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.