Light up the night: Experiencing & appreciating the beauty of a meteor shower

by Andrew Haman

From clms like Armageddon and Deep Impact to TV shows such as Star Trek and Stargate, heavenly bodies like asteroids and meteorites have had a storied impact on the worlds of cction. However, unlike many manufactured phenomena that grace our screens, meteor showers are very real, and meteorites can be seen throughout the year burning through Earths atmosphere in a blazing, cery trail of color to varying degrees of visibility.

This season of the year is the perfect time to look to the skies in the hopes of catching a beautiful light show. But what is a meteor or meteor shower? According to National Geographic, A meteor is a streak of light in the sky caused by a meteoroid crashing through Earths atmosphere. Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun. Most meteoroids are small fragments of rock created by asteroid collisions. Comets also create meteoroids as they orbit the sun and shed dust and debris.

Notice the change in label there? These shooting stars are all related, but go by different names. Meteoroids are objects in space (space rocks, if you will) ranging across a broad spectrum of sizes. The space rocks are known as meteors when they enter Earths atmosphere and burn up. If a meteor survives entry into the atmosphere and makes impact with Earth, it is known as a meteorite. Now that weve covered some speciccs, what is a meteor shower? A meteor shower occurs when a debris trail from an asteroid or comet (a trail of space rocks) enters the path of our planets orbit. The resultant light show occurs as these pieces of debris enter Earths atmosphere and burn up in a ball of cre. The cery trail can look different depending on the space rocks composition it might be yellow, or it might have a green or purple hue to it. As meteors dont make contact with Earths surface, theyre typically not dangerous. One notable exception is the roughly 55-foot-long meteor that exploded over Chelaybinsk, Russia, in February 2013.

“After traveling through the air for 32.5 seconds, the meteor was moving at about 40,000 mph when it disintegrated. The explosion caused a massive shock wave that damaged hundreds of buildings and injured more than 1,000 people in the Chelyabinsk region” according to space.

However, most of us will never be affected similarly by these beautiful pieces of space rubble – so it’s time to grab our chairs and camp out

in a nearby celd or our front lawn and enjoy the show.

What should you expect? It’s a waiting game – though meteors do fall during the day, it’s best to wait for late at night and an inky black sky, as they will show up the best then. Get away from as many of the bright lights of civilization as you can, and try not to use any electronics with backlit screens, such as cellphones. Sit and allow your eyes to become adjusted to the darkness.

You want to take in as much of the night sky as possible – laying on your back is helpful, says Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environ-

Each shower has a “radiant” or perceived origin point. Locating that is helpful, but you don’t want to focus on the origin point – the longer light trails will occur farther away from the origin point. Each shower will vary in intensity.

The biggest takeaway? Just have fun. Some expected meteor showers for the remainder of summer: Delta Aquarid (Peak: July 30) Perseid (Peak: August 11 – 13) Visit almanac.com/content/meteor-shower-calendar for more details.