Showers WITHOUT RAIN? Spotting a Meteor Shower

Dr. Teri Gee, Barlow Planetarium Director
Sep 3, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Jun 6

Draconids, Leonids, Orionids, Geminids, oh, my!

What are all these words? They’re names of annual meteor showers! Meteor showers have nothing to do with rain and nothing to do with weather. A meteor shower refers to comets!

The solar system is made up of planets, moons, asteroids & comets

The planets and moons mostly orbit in the same direction and in the same plane. Many asteroids are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are mainly found beyond the orbit of Neptune in an area called the Kuiper Belt and in the Oort Cloud.

But, some comets have orbits that carry them into the inner solar system where they can cross the Earth’s orbital path. When this happens, they leave behind dust and other particles called volatiles. As the Earth passes through that debris, all of that stuff goes into our atmosphere at very high speeds (like when a bug splats on the car windshield!) and burns up.

We end up seeing a flash of light, streaking across the sky; sometimes only for a fraction of a second and sometimes for a second or two. That’s a meteor, or a shooting star!

Meteors Can Happen Anytime of Year

Meteors from random bits of dust can happen anytime of the year, but during a meteor shower, there’s a lot more debris so we see more meteors than usual. The Perseids happened in August.

To observe a meteor shower, all you need to do is to go outside and be patient. It’s not a rainstorm. You’re watching for little bits of dust burning up.