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Nature's Corner Christine Lange Have you ever gazed up into the night sky and seen a bright flash of light? It was probably a meteor or shooting star. Actually meteors are not stars but streaks of light caused by particles from space called meteoroids. Meteoroids fall into the atmosphere at speeds of more than 25 miles per second. Friction with the earth's atmosphere causes them to heat up and glow. The glowing light is the meteor. Sporadic meteors are those that come from any direction at any time. We have no way of predicting when a sporadic meteor will appear. On a very clear dark night, away from city lights, you may see ten per hour. Unlike sporadic meteors, meteor showers can be predicted. Meteoroids sometimes travel in large groups, called swarms. Many of these meteoroids are particles lost from a comet during it's orbit around the sun. When the Earth crosses the comet's orbit, meteoroids enter the atmosphere and a meteor shower occurs. We can predict a shower because we know when the Earth will pass through a comet's trail. Some of the best meteor showers take place in August when you may up to 50 shooting stars in an hour. Though bright streaks may look close together they may be as far as 100 miles apart. Meteoroids appear to move faster after midnight. This is due to the movement of the Earth in its orbit aound the sun. When you look up at the early night sky, you are facing the direction the Earth is moving away from. Meteoroids falling to Earth must catch up and so appear to move slow. Towards the middle of the night, as the planet rotates, you are facing the direction the Earth is moving toward. Meteoroids in the sky appear to fall faster now because you are facing towards them, not away from them. |
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