Description
For the 14 hours of peak Leonid meteoroid flux in November 2002, the Hubble Space Telescope was pointed away from the radiant, and the solar arrays were oriented to minimize their cross-section. By coincidence, one of the nearest and largest planetary nebulae, the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), was nearly opposite the incoming Leonids and could be observed. A "Hubble Helix Team" (below) of volunteers led by Margaret Meixner (STScI) organized a nine-orbit campaign to observe the Helix with the ACS, WFPC2, NICMOS, and STIS.
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