What is a meteor shower?
Q: What is a meteor shower?
A: A meteor shower is an event when many meteors seem to come from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel paths, and most of them burn up before reaching the Earth's surface.
Q: What causes a meteor shower?
A: Meteor showers are the result of an interaction between a planet, such as Earth, and streams of debris from a comet. When a comet swings by the Sun in its orbit, some of its ice vaporizes and releases meteoroids which spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a dense meteoroid stream.
Q: What is the most visible meteor shower in most years?
A: The Perseids are typically the most visible meteor shower in most years, peaking on 12 August each year at over one meteor per minute.
Q: What is special about the Leonid Meteor Shower?
A: The Leonid Meteor Shower peaks around 17 November each year and about every 33 years it produces a big storm with thousands of meteors per hour. This was first realized during an 1833 storm when it was noticed that all meteors seemed to radiate from near Gamma Leonis star.
Q: How can I find out how many meteors will be visible from my location?
A: NASA has created a tool that allows you to calculate how many meteors per hour will be visible from your observing location.
