Maxfield Parrish paintings

Maxfield Parrish paintings
Martin Johnson Heade paintings
Although Yeomans, Jenniskens and other astronomers agree this year's Leonids show looks to be spectacular, other predictions are less grand.For example, Robert Cooke of NASA Ames' Research Center believes the meteor shower will provide an average display of about one every 10 seconds in the United States."It's sort of like talking to weathermen," said Cooke, who is now in Hawaii, since his calculations show the best display will appear above that state. "You get a different answer from each one."Astronomers form their predictions by mapping Earth's orbit with that of dust trails left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. As the comet, which is made up of dirt and ice, passes near the sun every 33 years, it heats up and releases a dust trail. The last time comet Tempel-Tuttle shed a dust trail was in 1998.Tracking Dust Trails in Space