What are Meteors?
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What is a meteor?
A meteor is a meteoroid – or a particle broken off an asteroid or comet orbiting the Sun – that burns up as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, creating the effect of a “shooting star”.
Most comets are composed of dust and ice, which can be likened to ‘a big, dirty snowball.’
Nearly all meteors are tiny dust particles, about the size of a grain of sand travelling at tens of kilometres per second through space.
If a meteor survives its transit of the atmosphere to come to rest on the Earth’s surface, the resulting object is called a meteorite.
A meteor striking the Earth or other object may produce an impact crater.
The fastest meteors travel at speeds of 71 kilometers (44 miles) per second.
Scientists think up to 50 metric tons of meteors fall on the Earth each day, but most are no bigger than a pebble.
Meteor Showers
Usually, just a few meteors are visible over the course of an hour, but sometimes the sky is filled with lights that look like heavenly fireworks. These meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet.
Meteor showers to watch in 2020
- The Quadrantids, due to peak on 3-4 January with around 60 meteors per hour, possibly from the trail of the asteroid 2003 EH1 or perhaps from a comet
- The Lyrids, due to peak on 21-22 April with nearly 20 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet Thatcher
- The Eta Aquariids, due to peak on 5-6 May with 35-40 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 1P/Halley
- The Delta Aquariids, due to peak on 29-30 July with 20 meteors per hour, possibly from the trail of comet 96P/Machholz
- The Perseids, due to peak on 12-13 August with around 80 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle
- The Draconids, due to peak on 8 October with only about 10 meteors per hour from the trail of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner
- The Orionids, due to peak on 21-22 October with 25 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 1P/Halley
- The Taurids, due to peak on 10-11 November with 10 meteors per hour from the trails of Asteroid 2004 TG10 and Comet 2P/Encke
- The Leonids, due to peak on 17-18 November with 15 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle
- The Geminids, due to peak on 14-15 December with more than 100 meteors per hour from the trail of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon (although it is officially classified as an asteroid, it produces a tail like a comet)
- The Ursids, due to peak on 21-22 December with under 10 meteors per hour from the trail of the comet 8P/Tuttle
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