Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Sunday Night

[Dakine 26]

Thanks for the reminder Marilyn!

My 9 year old daughter has never seen a shooter and is compiling a bunch of wishes for tonight! LOL.

Supposed to be at it's max here in Hawaii at 1 am.

She's going to bed early and set the alarm clock!

Good show!

Daughter ran out of wishes in about 10 minutes!

Took me awhile to try and explain they weren't falling stars and just pieces of dust burning up when they hit the atmosphere at 130,000 MPH.

Where they came from was a problem tho!

[Marilyn. 340]

Bummer, missed it not knowing.

But went outside about 2:00 am Friday cause couldnt sleep and seen three falling stars in about 15 mins. Love to see them.

they were probably part of this meteor shower.... this shower is an annual event that occurs every August.... this year the peak of this shower was last night

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070712_perseid_meteors.html

Thanks for the reminder Marilyn!

My 9 year old daughter has never seen a shooter and is compiling a bunch of wishes for tonight! LOL.

Supposed to be at it's max here in Hawaii at 1 am.

She's going to bed early and set the alarm clock!

Good show!

Daughter ran out of wishes in about 10 minutes!

Took me awhile to try and explain they weren't falling stars and just pieces of dust burning up when they hit the atmosphere at 130,000 MPH.

Where they came from was a problem tho!

A meteoroid is a large sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar system. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earth's (or another body's) atmosphere is a meteor, commonly called a shooting star or falling star. Many meteors are part of a meteor shower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

Falling stars are small, solid bodies that enter the Earth’s atmosphere as they travel through space. These stars are commonly called meteors. Meteors can enter the our atmosphere with a velocity that ranges from ten to seventy km/sec. These meteors can plunge into the atmosphere at velocities ranging from ten to seventy kilometers per second. Consequently, the friction that is created is great enough to cause the meteor to begin burning up which produces the light that we refer to as a falling star. A meteor shower occurs when hundreds of meteors fall simultaneously. Therefore, our atmosphere acts as a buffer zone which protects the Earth’s surface from impacts by many meteors that burn up as they travel through our atmosphere. In space there is no such barrier, so these meteors don't burn up. Since the moon does not have an atmosphere as thick as ours, many scientists have suggested that some of the craters on the moon may have resulted from the impacts of meteors.

http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/011498.html

A "falling star" or a "shooting star" has nothing at all to do with a star! These amazing streaks of light you can sometimes see in the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids falling into the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. The short-lived trail of light the burning meteoroid produces is called a meteor. Meteors are commonly called falling stars or shooting stars. If any part of the meteoroid survives burning up and actually hits the Earth, that remaining bit is then called a meteorite.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarCh...question12.html

Edited August 13, 2007 by MarilynP

[Dakine 26]

Bummer, missed it not knowing.

But went outside about 2:00 am Friday cause couldnt sleep and seen three falling stars in about 15 mins. Love to see them.

they were probably part of this meteor shower.... this shower is an annual event that occurs every August.... this year the peak of this shower was last night

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070712_perseid_meteors.html

Thanks for the reminder Marilyn!

My 9 year old daughter has never seen a shooter and is compiling a bunch of wishes for tonight! LOL.

Supposed to be at it's max here in Hawaii at 1 am.

She's going to bed early and set the alarm clock!

Good show!

Daughter ran out of wishes in about 10 minutes!

Took me awhile to try and explain they weren't falling stars and just pieces of dust burning up when they hit the atmosphere at 130,000 MPH.

Where they came from was a problem tho!

A meteoroid is a large sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar system. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earth's (or another body's) atmosphere is a meteor, commonly called a shooting star or falling star. Many meteors are part of a meteor shower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

Falling stars are small, solid bodies that enter the Earth’s atmosphere as they travel through space. These stars are commonly called meteors. Meteors can enter the our atmosphere with a velocity that ranges from ten to seventy km/sec. These meteors can plunge into the atmosphere at velocities ranging from ten to seventy kilometers per second. Consequently, the friction that is created is great enough to cause the meteor to begin burning up which produces the light that we refer to as a falling star. A meteor shower occurs when hundreds of meteors fall simultaneously. Therefore, our atmosphere acts as a buffer zone which protects the Earth’s surface from impacts by many meteors that burn up as they travel through our atmosphere. In space there is no such barrier, so these meteors don't burn up. Since the moon does not have an atmosphere as thick as ours, many scientists have suggested that some of the craters on the moon may have resulted from the impacts of meteors.

http://www.pa.msu.edu/sciencet/ask_st/011498.html

A "falling star" or a "shooting star" has nothing at all to do with a star! These amazing streaks of light you can sometimes see in the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids falling into the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. The short-lived trail of light the burning meteoroid produces is called a meteor. Meteors are commonly called falling stars or shooting stars. If any part of the meteoroid survives burning up and actually hits the Earth, that remaining bit is then called a meteorite.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarCh...question12.html

Thanks for the well known facts!

BIG questions is WHERE did they come from??

Try explaining that to a 9 year old.

As a matter of fact!

Try explaining it to anyone. No one can unless you bring religion into the picture and that still don't work!!

[Dr_LHA 3]

Typically enough it was cloudy here last night. Actually for me meteor showers are more of a worry than a something to be enjoyed!

Why are they a worry for you?

Rocks have a tendancy to smash into things in space.

[Scott & Lai 12]

Thanks for the well known facts!

BIG questions is WHERE did they come from??

Try explaining that to a 9 year old.

As a matter of fact!

Try explaining it to anyone. No one can unless you bring religion into the picture and that still don't work!!

Meteoroid particles come from the tails of comets. What does religion have to do with it??

Btw, it isn't friction that causes meteroids (or any falling object) to burn, it is the pressure of the air created by the rapidly-moving object, which superheats the air, then burns the object.

[Dr_LHA 3]

No one can unless you bring religion into the picture and that still don't work!!

Religion, as with all science, is not necessary to explain anything.