What is the streak of light that shoots across the night sky called?
During Earth's journey around the Sun, there are times when its orbit crosses the orbit of a comet. It is when the planet moves through the comet debris trail that we witness meteor showers. The showers are named after the star or constellation which is close to where the meteors appear to radiate in the sky.
All of us may have seen streaks of light zip through the sky. We call them shooting stars and we also wish upon them. Well, what are these shooting stars? What are these streams of light?
Consider the objects in space. These are lumps of rock or objects in space with sizes ranging from grains to small asteroids. A small piece of a comet or asteroid is called a meteoroid.
Meteoroid
These meteoroids can be considered as space rocks. They orbit the sun and when they enter Earth's atmosphere at a high speed, they burn because of frictional heating, causing the light. These rays of light are referred to as meteors.
When many meteors appear at once, we call it a meteor shower. During a meteor shower, a number of meteors can be seen radiating or originating from a point in the night sky.
But where do these meteoroids come from? How does Earth come across these? During Earth's journey around the Sun, there are times when its orbit crosses the orbit of a comet. It is when the planet moves through the comet debris trail that we witness meteor showers.
The meteor showers are named after the star or constellation which is close to where the meteors appear to radiate in the sky.
The Perseids meteor shower is the most famous meteor shower and they peak around August 12 every year.
Other notable meteor showers include the Leonids, Aquarids and Orionids and Taurids.
Now what happens when meteoroid survives the journey through the Earth's atmosphere and hits the ground? In that case, it becomes a meteorite.
Did you know that more than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth?
Picture Credit : Google