48 Fun Facts About Meteor Showers

What are bits of space debris called before they enter the atmosphere and burn up as meteors?

Meteoroids in a shower are mostly between a grain of sand and a pea in size, which is why almost all burn up; a space rock that does reach the ground earns a third name, meteorite.

The Perseids, Leonids and Geminids all take their names from what?

Constellations: each shower is named for the star pattern its meteors seem to stream from, with the Latin name given an '-id' ending, so Perseus gives the Perseids and Leo the Leonids.

The point in the sky from which a shower's meteors appear to fan out is called what?

The radiant is a trick of perspective: the meteors travel on parallel paths and only seem to fan out, the way railway tracks appear to meet at the horizon.

What is the best equipment for watching a meteor shower?

The naked eye wins because a meteor can streak across any part of the sky, and a telescope or binoculars show only a sliver of it; a dark site and patience matter more than gear.

Which future president, woken by a deacon, watched the great Leonid storm of 1833?

Abraham Lincoln was roused with the cry that the day of judgment had come; in the Civil War he retold it, saying the fixed stars had kept their places that night and so would the Union.

Which phase of the Moon is best for the peak night of a meteor shower?

New Moon is best because moonlight washes out the fainter meteors; a full or gibbous Moon near the peak can sharply cut the number you see.

Which Italian astronomer showed in the 1860s that meteor showers travel along the orbits of comets?

Giovanni Schiaparelli set out the link in letters to Angelo Secchi; he is better remembered for the 'canali' he later mapped on the Red Planet, a word mistranslated into English as canals.

Which German physicist, famed for sound patterns on vibrating plates, argued in 1794 that meteorites fall from space?

Ernst Chladni's claim was far from accepted until 1803, when thousands of stones fell on the Normandy town of L'Aigle and Jean-Baptiste Biot's report made the case.

Which American astronomer described comets as 'dirty snowballs' that shed debris as their ices vaporise?

Fred Whipple also devised the Whipple shield, a thin outer bumper that shatters incoming particles before they reach a spacecraft's hull; NASA's Stardust probe carried one to a comet.

The Lyrids have been watched for some 2,700 years; which country holds the first record, from 687 BCE?

China: an ancient chronicle records that 'stars fell like rain', which makes the Lyrids one of the oldest showers on record.

Most meteor showers put on their best show during which part of the night?

Between midnight and dawn your side of Earth turns to face the way the planet is travelling, so it sweeps up more debris, and the point most showers seem to stream from has climbed higher by then.

In which layer of Earth's atmosphere do most meteors burn up?

The mesosphere, roughly 50 to 85 km up, is where the thickening air heats a speeding grain until it vaporises; the iron and sodium atoms left behind linger there as a thin metallic layer.

The Perseids are associated with which comet?

Swift–Tuttle caused a scare in 1992, when an official circular noted that a 15-day slip in its 2126 return could mean a hit on Earth; older sightings then pinned the orbit down and ruled that out.

The Perseids, the best-known meteor shower of the year, peak in the middle of which month?

August gives the Perseids their fame as much as their numbers: the peak around the 12th brings 50 to 100 meteors an hour on warm northern-summer nights, when staying out is easy.

A fireball is usually defined as a meteor that outshines which planet?

Venus, the brightest planet, sets the bar at about magnitude −4; a fireball beats it because the piece of debris is far larger than the sand-grain specks behind ordinary meteors.

Some Catholics call the Perseids the 'tears' of which early Christian martyr?

Saint Lawrence's feast day falls just before the shower's peak; tradition says he was put to death on a gridiron in 258, so the meteors became his tears, or sparks from the fire.

Which John Denver song recalls the joy of watching the Perseid meteor shower with friends?

Rocky Mountain High: Denver told a Senate hearing in 1985 that broadcasters had banned it as a drug song, when its 'high' was the elation of a night in the mountains under the Perseids.

Which comet is the parent of the Leonids?

Tempel–Tuttle was found twice over in 1865–66, by Ernst Tempel and then Horace Tuttle; within a year its orbit was seen to match the November meteors, proof that the shower is its dust.

What sets the roughly 33-year rhythm of the great Leonid meteor storms?

Their parent comet's orbit takes about 33 years, and the dust is thickest close to it; when no storm came in 1899 many wrote the Leonids off, until 1966 proved otherwise.

At the peak of the 1966 Leonid storm, observers saw about 40 meteors how often?

Every second, but only for about a quarter of an hour: the burst, seen from the American Southwest, ran at some 144,000 meteors an hour.

Which religious founder wrote that the great 1833 Leonid storm fulfilled scripture and heralded the Second Coming?

Joseph Smith was woken to see 'the signs in the heavens' and wrote that the stars 'fell like hail stones'; on the Plains, Lakota winter counts remember 1833 as the year the stars fell.

Which asteroid, named after a doomed charioteer of Greek myth, is the unlikely parent of the Geminids?

Phaethon turned up in 1983 in images from the IRAS satellite, the first asteroid found by a spacecraft, and its orbit matched the Geminids, a shower that until then had no known parent.

The Geminids' parent asteroid holds what distinction among named asteroids?

Closest approach to the Sun: its orbit dips to 0.14 AU, less than half Mercury's nearest distance, which is why it was named after the boy who drove the Sun god's chariot.

The Geminids, known for bright, colourful meteors, peak in the middle of which month?

December, around the 13th and 14th; unlike most showers the Geminids are already going strong by mid-evening, because Gemini is high in the sky from about 10 pm.

What became of the Great Daylight Fireball seen from Utah to Alberta in 1972?

It flew back into space: astronomers call such a meteor an earthgrazer, and this one, perhaps the size of a small truck, bounced off the upper atmosphere like a stone skipping across a lake.

Why are Quadrantids seen less often than Perseids or Geminids, despite similar top rates?

Their peak lasts only hours because the stream is thin and Earth cuts across it at right angles; most showers stay near their best for a day or two.

The Quadrantids peak in the first week of which month?

January: the Quadrantids peak around the 3rd and 4th, and their parent body, 2003 EH1, looks like an asteroid but may be a dead comet.

The April Lyrids come from which comet, last seen in 1861 on an orbit lasting over four centuries?

Comet Thatcher's old dust can still surprise: in 1803 a Lyrid outburst over Richmond, Virginia, was said to resemble 'a shower of sky rockets'.

Which two annual meteor showers are both produced by Halley's Comet?

Orionids and Eta Aquariids: Earth crosses the comet's trail twice a year, in October and again in early May, so one stream gives two showers even though the comet itself returns only about every 76 years.

Which author, born as Halley's Comet passed in 1835, died on its 1910 return?

Mark Twain called it in 1909: 'I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835… and I expect to go out with it.' He died in April 1910 with the comet in the sky; it is next due in mid-2061.

Which European spacecraft passed closest to Halley's Comet in March 1986, returning the first close-up images of a comet's nucleus?

Giotto was named after the painter who saw the comet in 1301 and painted it as the Star of Bethlehem; the probe passed 596 km from the nucleus.

The Eta Aquariids of early May are best seen from which hemisphere?

Southern: Aquarius climbs much higher before dawn there, so the count can reach 50 or more an hour, while northern watchers see far fewer.

Which shower's meteors are nicknamed the Halloween fireballs?

Taurids: their meteors are few and slow but can be very bright, because the stream holds a swarm of pebble-sized pieces, far bigger than the usual dust grains.

Some astronomers suspect a stray piece of the Taurid stream of causing which famous event?

The Tunguska blast flattened a Siberian forest on 30 June 1908, just as a daytime branch of the same stream was peaking, which is why some astronomers suspect a stray piece of it.

The October Draconids come from which comet, the first ever visited by a spacecraft, in 1985?

Giacobini–Zinner gave the shower its old name, the Giacobinids; in September 1985 NASA's ICE probe flew through its tail, months before the fleet sent to Halley's Comet arrived.

Which usually quiet shower produced great meteor storms in 1933 and 1946?

Draconids: in most years they bring only a handful of meteors an hour, best watched at nightfall, because Draco stands highest in the sky as darkness falls.

Which often-overlooked shower peaks around the winter solstice, just before Christmas?

The Ursids fan out from near Kochab in the bowl of the Little Dipper; with modest rates and a peak days before Christmas, they are a shower many watchers skip.

The Andromedids, spectacular in 1872 and 1885, came from which comet that had been seen to break apart?

Biela's Comet split in two in 1846, came back as a pair in 1852 and was never seen again; when Earth crossed its path in 1872, thousands of meteors an hour fell in its place.

Why are the Leonids among the fastest meteors of any shower?

They meet Earth head-on: their parent comet circles the Sun the opposite way to the planets, so the two speeds add up to about 70 km a second.

A very bright meteor, especially one that explodes in the atmosphere, is called what?

A bolide takes its name from the Greek for a missile; the one that blew apart over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 injured well over a thousand people, mostly with flying glass.

What are meteors called when they belong to no shower and can appear on any night?

Sporadic meteors, tied to no stream, turn up at a rate of several an hour on any clear night, which is why the weakest showers are hard to pick out from the background.

Astronauts have photographed Perseid and Lyrid meteors burning up below them from where?

The International Space Station orbits far above the thin upper air where meteors glow, so in 2011 and 2012 its crews caught shooting stars on camera as streaks beneath them.

Meteor showers have been directly observed on which other planet besides Earth?

Mars: in March 2004 the Spirit rover caught a strange streak in the Martian sky, which astronomers traced to dust shed by a comet that crosses the planet's path.

Some strong meteor showers arrive in broad daylight; how do astronomers mainly track them?

With radar and radio: that is how the Arietids of June, among the most intense daytime showers, were first picked up at Jodrell Bank in England in 1947.

What do observers call the glow a bright meteor can leave hanging along its path for seconds or minutes?

A train can outlast its meteor by minutes, long enough for winds high in the atmosphere to twist it out of shape.

Which comet, circling the Sun every 3.3 years, is the parent of the Taurid meteors?

Comet Encke has the shortest orbit of any bright comet; another branch of the shower is traced to the asteroid 2004 TG10, thought to be a chunk that broke off Encke itself.

April Lyrid meteors appear to stream from a point near which bright star?

Vega marks the spot, but the best view is with your gaze turned well away from it: meteors seen close to their starting point leave short trails, and those farther off leave long ones.

By 2024 the IAU listed over 900 meteor showers; most of them had what status?

Unconfirmed candidates: only about one shower in eight is 'established', a status the IAU grants once independent observations show the stream is real, and the rest sit on a working list.