What makes a meteor shower?

woodardr

Meteors are small rocks (sand, really) that hit the earth's atmosphere, burning up as they generate friction with all the air molecules. Meteor showers are just a lot of meteors at the same time. Typically, meteor showers are related to the orbits of comets, where the dust that comes off the comet to make the tail continues to follow approximately the same orbit as the comet. Thus, when the earth goes through this trail of dust, we hit a lot of this space sand all at once, and we get a meteor shower. Meteor showers are named after the constellation where all the meteors seem to be coming from. During a shower, you could draw lines in the sky back from all the meteors you see, and they'd all seem to cross in one small area of the sky. In essence, you're looking "upstream" at where the comet passed through previously. Feb 20 06, 11:34 AM

mochyn

being told that it stinks Feb 20 06, 2:01 PM

LeakyPickle

Yes! - Careful mochyn. Humor doesn't often fly well in this format. Feb 20 06, 5:44 PM

soonappear

Intersecting orbits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_shower Feb 20 06, 6:25 PM

queenyari

Comets have a trail of debris behind them known as the tail. When a comet passes by the Earth close enough some of the debri gets sucked in the Earth's gravitational pull causing them to burn upon entering our atmosphere and raining down. Feb 21 06, 9:44 PM