Knowing Meteors and Meteor Shower

Meteors or shooting stars are pieces of dust present in space. They enter the atmosphere of the Earth and burn up. While entering the Earth’s atmosphere, they create bright lights across the night sky. If a meteor or shooting star makes it to the Earth’s atmosphere, they are called meteorites, but they are known as meteoroids before entering it. Most meteors are small in size and do not burn entirely in the Earth’s atmosphere.

What are Meteors?

Meteors are a phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere of the Earth. They come from the Greek word Meteoros, meaning “high in the air”. Any big or small particles in the solar system heating up with friction while entering the Earth’s atmosphere and producing a streak of light are meteors. Meteors are best observed in the night sky. Depending on the chemical composition of the meteors and the air from where it is passing through, they appear in different colours. For example, a meteor might appear purple with its high calcium content. 

What is a Meteor Shower?

A meteor shower happens when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet, filling the sky with light like beautiful fireworks. A meteor shower is generally visible for an hour. When the Earth passes through a comet’s orbit and collides with the Earth’s atmosphere, its debris creates a meteor shower with colourful streaks. 

A simple fact about meteor showers is that they seem to come from a single spot in the sky. This spot is known as the Radiant point. 

Where this radiant appears in the constellation, named the meteor shower. The meteors are from the comet from which they broke off but not from the constellation. An example of a meteor shower is Leonid Meteor. It seems to be from the Leo constellation but is from the Tempel-Tuttle comet. 

Meteor Vs Meteoroid

Now let us focus on the difference between a meteor and a meteoroid. Meteors and meteoroids are both the same, but the key difference is from where they are. Meteoroids are rocks or small objects in space that are known as meteors on entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Meteoroids tend to originate in the Asteroid belt, but sometimes they can be the parts of the comet that are generally away from the Kuiper belt. They orbit around the Sun in an ellipse pattern at speeds of up to 100,000mph. Meteoroids are categorised into three different types based on their composition – Iron, Stone, and Stony Iron.  

A meteor, after entering the atmosphere of the Earth, goes at the speed of its friction and begins to burn or heat up. However, a meteor can pass through the thermosphere but start burning after reaching the mesosphere. The chemical composition of a meteor depends on the colour in which it shines. For example, if a meteor has a yellow shine, it contains a lot of iron and if it shines red, it contains a lot of oxygen and nitrogen. 

Interesting facts about meteor or meteor showers

• The meaning of the word meteor is “suspended in the air”.
• They can be visible from 120 km above the surface of the Earth.
• Meteors that burn brighter than usual are called fireballs.
• The Orionid Meteor shower, which occurs each year in late October, is created by debris and dust left behind by the passage of Comet 1P/Halley.
• Most of the meteors fall into the ocean. 
• The best time to view a meteor shower is on a dark night or in the early morning hours on a moonless night.

Conclusion

Let’s wrap up the article with the definition of meteors. Meteors are small debris entering the atmosphere of the Earth from space. This article discussed meteors and meteoroids, and we also looked at the difference between them. Moreover, we have learned some interesting facts about meteors and meteor showers.