Meteor Shower

space · night sky · celestial events · astronomy

Tiny cosmic visitors. Meteors in showers are usually smaller than a grain of sand, so they burn up completely as they zoom through Earth's atmosphere at super-high speeds. They never actually hit the ground because they disintegrate in the sky.

Shooting stars appear. When these tiny pieces of rock and dust enter Earth's air, friction makes them glow brightly, creating the streaks of light you see across the sky. Each streak is one meteor burning up.

They come from one spot. All the meteors in a shower seem to come from the same point in the night sky, even though they're actually traveling on parallel paths. This is the same reason train tracks look like they meet in the distance.

Some are epic storms. The most intense meteor showers, like the Leonids, are so powerful they can produce over 1,000 meteors per hour. These extreme events are called meteor storms and are absolutely spectacular to watch.

About 100 good showers. Scientists have discovered over 900 suspected meteor showers, but only around 100 of them are well established and happen regularly each year. You can find NASA's map online to see which ones are active right now.