From films like “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” to TV shows such as “Star Trek” and “Stargate,” heavenly bodies like asteroids and meteorites have had a storied impact on the worlds of fiction. However, unlike many manufactured phenomena that grace our screens, these are very real, and meteorites can be seen throughout the year burning through Earth’s atmosphere in a blazing, fiery trail of color – to varying degrees of visibility.
This season of the year is the perfect time to look to the skies in the hopes of catching a beautiful light show. But what is a meteor or meteor shower? According to National Geographic, “A meteor is a streak of light in the sky caused by a meteoroid crashing through Earth’s atmosphere. Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun. Most meteoroids are small fragments of rock created by asteroid collisions. Comets also create meteoroids as they orbit the sun and shed dust and debris.”
Notice the change in label there? These “shooting stars” are all related, but go by different names. Meteoroids are objects in space (“space rocks,” if you will) ranging across a broad spectrum of sizes. The “space rocks” are known as meteors when they enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. If a meteor survives entry into the atmosphere and makes impact with Earth, it is known as a meteorite.
There – now that we’ve covered some specifics, what is a meteor shower?
A meteor shower occurs when a debris trail from an asteroid or comet – a trail of “space rocks” – enters the path of our planet’s orbit. The resultant light show occurs as these pieces of debris enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in a ball of fire. The fiery trail can look different depending on the space rock’s composition – it might be yellow, or it might have a green or purple hue to it. As meteors don’t make contact with Earth’s surface, they’re typically not dangerous. One notable exception is the roughly 55-foot-long meteor that exploded over Chelaybinsk, Russia, in February 2013. “After traveling through the air for 32.5 seconds, the meteor was moving at about 40,000 mph when it disintegrated. The explosion caused a massive shock wave that damaged hundreds of buildings and injured more than 1,000 people in the Chelyabinsk region” (https://www.space.com/19829-russian-fireball-meteor-blast-infographic.html).
However, most of us will never be affected similarly by these beautiful pieces of space rubble – so it’s time to grab our chairs and camp out in a nearby field or our front lawn and enjoy the show.
What should you expect? It’s a waiting game – though meteors do fall during the day, it’s best to wait for late at night and an inky black sky, as they will show up the best then. Get away from as many of the bright lights of civilization as you can, and try not to use any electronics with backlit screens, such as cellphones. Sit and allow your eyes to become adjusted to the darkness. You want to take in as much of the night sky as possible – laying on your back is helpful, says Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office. Each shower has a “radiant” or perceived origin point. Locating that is helpful, but you don’t want to focus on the origin point – the longer light trails will occur farther away from the origin point. Each shower will vary in intensity.
The biggest takeaway? Just have fun.
Some expected meteor showers for the remainder of the summer:
Southern Delta Aquariids (Peak: July 29 – 30)
Alpha Capricornids (Peak: July 30 – 31)
Perseids (Peak: August 11 – 12)
by Andrew Haman
Cover photo courtesy of Usukhbayar Gankhuyag; free usage under license
