they light up the sky and fall toward
Earth at speeds 32 times faster than a
speeding bullet
meteor showers have been mesmerizing us
for centuries and they’re a beautiful
reminder that we are part of a busy and
mystical solar system but what exactly
are meteor showers where do they come
from and are they dangerous to humans
this is meteor showers 101 a meteor
shower occurs when the trail of
interplanetary debris like the one left
behind by comets or asteroids enters the
Earth’s atmosphere the interplanetary
debris is mostly made up of space rocks
also called meteoroids as the meteoroids
fall toward Earth they produce drag
throughout the rock this causes the
meteoroid to heat up the streak of
intense light we see is the hot air left
behind the burning rock when Earth
encounters many meteoroids at once we
call it a meteor shower meteor showers
are usually named for the constellation
in which their radiant appears the most
common and famous meteor showers are
Perseus Leonid Geminids and Lyra’s
however it is estimated that there are
around 21 meteor showers every year with
most of them occurring between August
and December meteors enter Earth’s
atmosphere at speeds ranging from 25,000
miles per hour to 160,000 miles per hour
it’s frightening to imagine all that
interplanetary debris flying toward us
cameras around the world have captured
meteors falling from the sky and
although some eventually hit most of
them disintegrate or burn off the
remaining pieces fall into the ocean
when they survive the fall and hit land
we call them meteorites scientists
estimate that most meteors are the size
of a pebble in fact 99% of the
approximately 50 tons of space debris
that falls on the Earth’s surface every
day is of that size
meteorites however are as large as
boulders the largest meteorite found on
earth is the hobo meteorite discovered
in Namibia in 1920 it weighs roughly 119
thousand pounds it’s new years of that
magnitude and potential bigger ones that
inspire scientists to dedicate their
careers to understand how they form and
how they travel through our solar system
in order to better comprehend them and
look for ways to reduce their damage
Earth at speeds 32 times faster than a
speeding bullet
meteor showers have been mesmerizing us
for centuries and they’re a beautiful
reminder that we are part of a busy and
mystical solar system but what exactly
are meteor showers where do they come
from and are they dangerous to humans
this is meteor showers 101 a meteor
shower occurs when the trail of
interplanetary debris like the one left
behind by comets or asteroids enters the
Earth’s atmosphere the interplanetary
debris is mostly made up of space rocks
also called meteoroids as the meteoroids
fall toward Earth they produce drag
throughout the rock this causes the
meteoroid to heat up the streak of
intense light we see is the hot air left
behind the burning rock when Earth
encounters many meteoroids at once we
call it a meteor shower meteor showers
are usually named for the constellation
in which their radiant appears the most
common and famous meteor showers are
Perseus Leonid Geminids and Lyra’s
however it is estimated that there are
around 21 meteor showers every year with
most of them occurring between August
and December meteors enter Earth’s
atmosphere at speeds ranging from 25,000
miles per hour to 160,000 miles per hour
it’s frightening to imagine all that
interplanetary debris flying toward us
cameras around the world have captured
meteors falling from the sky and
although some eventually hit most of
them disintegrate or burn off the
remaining pieces fall into the ocean
when they survive the fall and hit land
we call them meteorites scientists
estimate that most meteors are the size
of a pebble in fact 99% of the
approximately 50 tons of space debris
that falls on the Earth’s surface every
day is of that size
meteorites however are as large as
boulders the largest meteorite found on
earth is the hobo meteorite discovered
in Namibia in 1920 it weighs roughly 119
thousand pounds it’s new years of that
magnitude and potential bigger ones that
inspire scientists to dedicate their
careers to understand how they form and
how they travel through our solar system
in order to better comprehend them and
look for ways to reduce their damage
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