hi I’m Veronica with watchmojo.com and
today we’re learning more about the
streaks of light we see in the night sky
and why they’re often mistaken for a
shooting star so what is a shooting star
shooting stars are really meteors and
their streaks of light and that shoot
across the sky very quickly they last
only a second or two they look like
stars so for that reason they become
known as shooting stars now what’s the
difference between what we know as a
shooting star in a meteor shower meteor
showers are just a lot of shooting stars
that happen all at once
there are really specks of dust most of
them not much bigger than a grain of
sand at times the Earth passes through a
whole cloud of dust and that’s when we
get meteor showers do they ever hit the
earth no most meteors don’t hit the
earth the tiny ones the size of a speck
of dust just vaporize in the upper
atmosphere now are there any larger
meteors that ever fall you get bowlines
which are huge meteors up to about five
meters across
in 1908 there was a bolide that exploded
over Tunguska in Siberia and the blast
was heard as far away as Europe and it
just flattened trees for kilometres all
around it didn’t leave a crater because
it detonated in the air these kind of
things happen we just have to cross our
fingers that this happen over a
populated area when’s the best time
during the night to see one after
midnight the meteors come headlong
toward the earth you always get the most
dramatic results and see more of them
after midnight is there a particular
time of year that we should look up in
the sky there are annual meteor showers
and you could check it up on the
internet but August the 12th every year
there’s probably the most famous one
it’s the Perseid meteors now due to the
light pollution we find in cities can we
still see a shooting star
no very rarely you might get to see the
brightest ones the only way to do it
really is to go where the skies are a
bit darker out in the country and you
don’t have to go too far from the city
maybe 45 minutes by car or so well thank
you very much that was great you’re
welcome it was really a lot of fun
thank you
today we’re learning more about the
streaks of light we see in the night sky
and why they’re often mistaken for a
shooting star so what is a shooting star
shooting stars are really meteors and
their streaks of light and that shoot
across the sky very quickly they last
only a second or two they look like
stars so for that reason they become
known as shooting stars now what’s the
difference between what we know as a
shooting star in a meteor shower meteor
showers are just a lot of shooting stars
that happen all at once
there are really specks of dust most of
them not much bigger than a grain of
sand at times the Earth passes through a
whole cloud of dust and that’s when we
get meteor showers do they ever hit the
earth no most meteors don’t hit the
earth the tiny ones the size of a speck
of dust just vaporize in the upper
atmosphere now are there any larger
meteors that ever fall you get bowlines
which are huge meteors up to about five
meters across
in 1908 there was a bolide that exploded
over Tunguska in Siberia and the blast
was heard as far away as Europe and it
just flattened trees for kilometres all
around it didn’t leave a crater because
it detonated in the air these kind of
things happen we just have to cross our
fingers that this happen over a
populated area when’s the best time
during the night to see one after
midnight the meteors come headlong
toward the earth you always get the most
dramatic results and see more of them
after midnight is there a particular
time of year that we should look up in
the sky there are annual meteor showers
and you could check it up on the
internet but August the 12th every year
there’s probably the most famous one
it’s the Perseid meteors now due to the
light pollution we find in cities can we
still see a shooting star
no very rarely you might get to see the
brightest ones the only way to do it
really is to go where the skies are a
bit darker out in the country and you
don’t have to go too far from the city
maybe 45 minutes by car or so well thank
you very much that was great you’re
welcome it was really a lot of fun
thank you
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