Meteor Showers: Mother Nature’s Fireworks

article image
PHOTO: DONALD PEARSON
Meteor showers can put on an especially intense show if they coincide with a moonless night.

Meteors are commonly called shooting stars, but as you know, the cosmic objects aren’t really stars at all. Instead, they’re particles of space dust and rock that give off intense bursts of light (and occasionally sound) as they burn up in the higher reaches of our atmosphere.

Although meteors enter the earth’s protective covering of air all the time (and a sharp-eyed observer can sight up to 10 “falling phenomena” an hour on almost any dark, clear night), the best astral displays occur when Spaceship Earth passes through a long trail of comet debris or a denser-than-usual dust cloud. The amazing meteor showers that occur at such times can actually fill the entire sky.

As a matter of fact, on November 12, 1833 shooting stars sprayed over America’s skies like a heavy blizzard of luminescent snowflakes at a rate of 35,000 per hour! The stellar display was so astounding that–as one contemporary writer put it–“the population was impressed to the point of reform.” Such superstar showers don’t happen all that often, though, and are extremely difficult to predict.

Luckily, there are a few “regular” sky shows, and two of the best-known annual astral performances take place every July and August. If you go stargazing after midnight during either of those two showers–and if the sky isn’t blotted out by clouds–you can expect to see between 30 and 50 meteors an hour!

It Depends on Your Point of View

  • Published on Jul 1, 1979
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368