A Comet - Credit: NASA

A meteor shower happens when a cluster of meteoroids orbiting the Sun cross the path of the Earth’s orbit. The meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a similar time each year. Their path is also roughly the same; therefore they seem to radiate from a certain spot in the sky. So where do the meteoroids come from that cause meteor showers? Typically, comets that also orbit our Sun will have a trail of debris following them. This trail of debris is filled with meteoroids. A meteoroid is a small, stony or metallic object. Meteoroids are made up of materials similar to asteroids, but are much smaller. Asteroids and meteoroids are generally made up of minerals such as quartz or ferrous metals like iron and/or nickel. They can be as small as a grain of sand or dust particle or as large as the size of large boulders.

Let’s use the Perseids Meteor Shower as an example. The Perseids gets their name from the constellation Perseus because of the fact that they seem to stem from a point near that constellation. Debris in orbit around our Sun following a trail from the Swift-Tuttle comet causes the Perseids Meteor Shower.

So try to imagine a comet as a racecar passing you by on a circular track, the dust following the racecar is the meteoroids and you are the Earth. If you pass into the trail of the dust you will be hit by the particles, however if you are not in the path of the dust particles they will still follow the racecar around the track. Just remember in space there is no air resistance so these dust particles will have an easier time remaining in an orbit around our Sun because of gravity from the comet and other objects.

There is very little meteor shower activity from now until April so I will be posting more meteor facts to keep you interested until the next meteor shower comes into a town near you!

Keep your head up.

- Meteor Mark

The post What is a Meteor Shower? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Depending on your time zone this may or may not always be the case, but for the most part it is generally applicable. Astronomers and scientists use Universal Time (UT) as a standard measure of time. You can visit the Meteor Glossary for a further description of Universal Time (UT) and use the clock below so you can view in the morning on the date closest to the peak.

The current Universal Time is:

I hope this saves you from missing a meteor shower. I’m always eager to help new and old meteor enthusiasts. Meteor hunting is fun for people of all ages and to me it’s one of nature’s finest occurrences.

Keep your head up.

- Meteor Mark

The post Meteor Shower FAQ appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteor Shower Art - Click Here

What or who was Perseus? A great hero of old Greek mythology who is known to have slain the Gorgon Medusa. The constellation Perseus can be seen in the northern hemisphere. The constellation contains a unique star named Algol (the Demon Star) that is best known as being the first “variable star” discovered. Algol is considered a variable star because it changes in brightness about every three days. Perseus is the radiant of the Perseids Meteor Shower, this is where meteors will appear to originate from. If you want to see this event you can venture out early in the morning of August 12 in Eastern Standard Time Zones and look toward the darkest part of the sky in the east/northeast. Perseid Meteors will streak across the sky at an extremely high rate this year. Have fun and keep your head up.

For all of the Meteor Blog Perseids blog posts click this PERSEIDS link.

The post Perseids Meteor Shower Peaks August 12th appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post When is the best time to view the Perseids Meteor Shower in 2009? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteor Shower Art

Question: How hot are Perseids Meteors?

Answer: They’re pretty hot, more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 Celsius). Most meteors vaporize before hitting Earth but now and then when they hit Earth they are then called meteorites. Meteors become visible around 60 miles high in our atmosphere.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

- Meteor Mark

Did you know I also have a poker forum?

The post Perseids Meteors Are Hot! appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteor Shower Artwork

Q: What do Pete Sampras, Sir Mix-a-Lot, and King George IV have in common with the Perseids Meteor Shower?

A: They were all born on August 12th and that happens to be the peak day for the Perseids Meteor Shower. The Perseids is thousands of years old and is believed to be first documented in 36 AD by the Chinese around this same time of year.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post Perseids Meteor Shower Fun Fact appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Click Here for Perseids T Shirts

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post How big is the Parent Comet Swift-Tuttle that causes the Perseids each year? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Check Out Perseids Meteor Shower Tees by Clicking Here

Before a Perseids Meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere it is called a meteoroid. These meteoroids enter our atmosphere at ridiculously fast speeds as high as 133,000 mile per hour.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post How fast are the Perseids? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Rock You Like a Meteor T Shirts Click Here

The Perseids Meteor Shower consists of meteors as small as a grain to softball size fireballs. The Perseids Meteor Shower is known as being the strongest summer meteor shower of the year for residents in the northern hemisphere. It is not known for great fireballs like other meteor showers.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post How big are Perseids Meteors? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Buy Meteor Freak T-Shirts Click Here

The source is dust trails from the Swift-Tuttle Comet. The Swift-Tuttle Comet was discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in July of 1862. The comet passed by Earth in 1992 and will not return again until 2126, however the dust that follows this comet creates a reliable annual meteor shower, the Perseids.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post What causes the Perseids Meteor Shower? appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Perseids Meteor Shower Tees - Click the Image to View

Q: How do you pronounce Perseids?

A: Purr-See-Idds

The Perseids Meteor Shower will be peaking August 12, 2009.

Click this link for more information on the Perseids Meteor Shower.

The post Perseids Meteor Shower Facts appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteor Shower

The June Bootids Meteor Shower starts this morning June 22, 2009.  This could be a super year for this event.  This shower will remain active until July 2 and peaks June 27, 2009.  Here is a meteor shower fun fact: Did you know that a meteor shower is one of the most random, capricious and unpredictable astronomical happenings? To this day scientists have great difficulty forecasting meteor showers.

For more details visit the post: June Bootids.

In the mean time bookmark the site and keep your head up!

- Meteor Mark

The post June Meteor Shower appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteor Freak

Is it really true that a meteor hit a German person? When I first heard the “news” of this event I had my doubts. This isn’t impossible, but I would have to say it is improbable. Here is what supposedly happened, a 14-year old German boy, Gerrit Blank, claims that he saw a bright light and heard an enormous clap of thunder. He also claims, the meteorite left a foot wide crater in the ground after grazing off the back of his hand.

Now some meteor facts to help you decide:  Meteoroids enter the atmosphere at anywhere from 40,000 to 120,000 miles per hour but meteoroids are not usually traveling at speeds fast enough to produce light (meteor) when they are near the ground. A meteoroid will generally reach a terminal velocity of approximately 200 to 400 miles per hour anywhere from 9 to 12 miles high. Meteorites are usually not glowing hot when they hit the ground due to the ablation process, which is basically the same principle spacecraft use to reenter our atmosphere.

Please understand I really want to believe that this occurred, but the story just doesn’t add up. I welcome your comments but in the meantime bookmark the site and get ready for the June Bootids occurring June 22.  We look forward to increased meteor shower activity in the next three months. I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote.

I am going to look a little further into this story, but I have my doubts. Keep your head up.

- Meteor Mark

The post German Boy – Hit by Meteor appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Sporadic Meteor

What is a sporadic meteor? Sporadic meteors come from fragments and particles of solar system dust that travel around our Sun. Sporadic meteors are not associated with a meteor shower, their rendezvous with Earth are capricious and truly random or sporadic; therefore giving them their name “sporadic meteors”.

On any given night a viewer may see about five sporadic meteors. An interesting thing to do while viewing a meteor shower is determine whether or not you witnessed a sporadic meteor or one from the shower. The way to do this is to evaluate the path of the meteor and trace it’s backward path to the meteor shower radiant that is occurring on that day.

During the Quadrantids meteor shower that occurred in early January, I saw two meteors that I believed to be sporadic; they virtually shimmered across the sky in a completely different direction from the other meteors that were falling.

I should add there are two minor meteor showers occurring in February, the α-Centaurids that started January 28th, peaked on February 7th and ends February 21st, the δ-Leonids that starts February 15th, peaks on February 25th and ends March 10th and the γ-Normids that starts February 25th, peaks on March 13th and ends March 22nd. The γ-Normids is the only meteor shower of March. All of these meteor showers will produce very minimal results of about five meteors per hour during peak days.

The next meteor shower to produce greater results is the Lyrids that will occur April 15th through April 25th and will peak on April 22nd. The Lyrids should produce about fifteen to twenty meteors per hour during its peak.

Until then, keep your head up, bookmark the site and check out the MeteorBlog Shop. You never know, you may see a sporadic meteor in a dark sky.

- Meteor Mark

The post Meteor Shower Facts – Sporadic Meteors appeared first on Meteor Showers.

Meteoroid

What are meteors, meteoroids and meteorites? Before a meteor enters our atmosphere they are called meteoroids. Most meteoroids are composed of nickel and iron and are about the size of a quarter. Ninety percent of meteoroids follow the path of comets. They are usually formed by the collisions of asteroids in our solar system. Comets that orbit our sun in our solar system have a gravitational pull. When the path of a comet crosses Earth, meteoroids that are following a comet fall into the atmosphere and become meteors and any meteor that lands on the surface of the Earth is called a meteorite.

The post Meteor Shower Facts appeared first on Meteor Showers.