If a meteor shower is in the forecast, you won't need a telescope, binoculars, or a high mountain to throw a "star gazing" party. You may require a heated sleeping bag as well as an alarm clock to wake you up in the middle of the night. However, simply lying down in your own backyard will put you in the ideal position to enjoy a fantastic performance.
Meteors
A meteor is a space rock
or meteoroid that penetrates the atmosphere of the Earth. The resistance or
drag of the air on the space rock causes it to become incredibly heated as it
falls toward Earth. We're looking at a "shooting star." That dazzling
streak is the blazing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere, not
the rock itself. A meteor shower occurs when Earth hits a large number of
meteoroids at the same time.
Why would Earth be hit
by that many meteoroids all at once? Comets, like the Earth and the other
planets, circle the sun. Comet orbits are typically lopsided, as opposed to the
relatively circular orbits of planets.
As a comet approaches the sun, portion of its frozen surface melts
off, producing a large amount of dust and debris. As the sun's heat boils off
more and more ice and debris, it strews it out throughout the comet's course,
especially in the inner solar system (where we reside). Then, many times a
year, when Earth orbits the sun, its orbit intersects that of a comet, causing
Earth to collide with a swarm of comet debris.
But not to worry!
Meteoroids are typically
tiny, ranging in size from a dust particle to a rock. They are nearly usually
tiny enough to burn up fast in our atmosphere, so there is little possibility
that any of them will collide with the Earth's surface. However, there is a
significant probability that you will see a spectacular shooting star display
in the middle of the night!
The bright streaks of a
meteor shower can occur anywhere in the sky, yet their "tails" all
seem to point back to the same location. This is due to the fact that all
meteors are approaching us at the same angle, and as they move closer to Earth,
the effect of perspective causes them to appear to be farther apart. It's
similar like standing in the midst of train tracks and watching the two tracks
merge in the distance.
Meteor showers are
called for the constellation from which the meteors appear to come. Thus, the
Orionids Meteor Shower, which happens every October, appears to originate in
the constellation Orion the Hunter.
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