We know that shooting stars occur mainly because the orbit of the Earth leads it to cross fields of rocky debris, which result in meteor showers. Their fleeting nature makes them difficult to observe, and the presence of light pollution further complicates their observation. On an average night with clear skies and minimal light pollution, you might see a few meteors per hour.Ĭontrary to popular belief, shooting stars are not as rare as one might assume. The frequency at which you can see a shooting star, or meteor, depends on various factors such as your location, the time of year, light pollution, and weather conditions. Blue: Blue shooting stars are relatively rare, but they can be caused by the presence of copper in the meteor.These molecules excite and ionize the atoms in the meteor, causing it to glow red. Red: Red shooting stars are due to the presence of molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere that emit light in the red part of the spectrum.Magnesium is heated and ionized by the intense friction with the Earth’s atmosphere, and it emits light in the green part of the spectrum. Green: The green color of some shooting stars is caused by the abundance of magnesium in the meteor.White: Most shooting stars appear white or yellow due to the intense heat causing the meteor to glow as it burns up in the atmosphere.If you are a regular stargazer, you can expect to see shooting stars of the following colors: In addition to these gases, the velocity and the angle at which the metoroids are falling can also influence the color and the brightness of that shooting star. The chemicals in the meteors are vaporized by this heat, as are some of the gases (such as nitrogen and oxygen), and the energy emitted by this interaction results in a flash of colored light. These colors are the result of the intense heat generated by the friction between the high-speed meteors and the gases that make up the atmosphere. If you have ever observed shooting stars, you may have noticed that some meteors emit different colors as they pass through the atmosphere. Some of the most intense meteor showers can produce 100 shooting stars in less than an hour! These are predictable regions in space where “ meteor showers” take place in the sky. While more than 25 million such micrometeoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere every single day, the most prominent ones occur when Earth’s orbit around the Sun intersects a comet’s orbit. When these space rocks enter the atmosphere, they leave bright streaks in their wake as they burn up in the night sky. The first kind, the micrometeoroids, are the ones that amateur astronomers most look forward to admiring. They land on the surface and form craters… these are classified as meteorites. While the smaller meteoroids will burn at high altitudes in the atmosphere, the larger and heavier ones contain a large core made of iron which cannot be vaporized by atmospheric friction (also known as atmospheric drag). Occasionally, some of these rocks are flung toward the Earth and enter its atmosphere. These meteoroids come from asteroids and comets – pieces of space rock that floats about in between the planets and orbit the sun with them.ĭuring their journey, some pieces of rock and dust break off from them due to changes in temperature as they get closer and further from the Sun. Shooting stars are glowing streaks of light produced by small pieces of space rock and dust when they enter the atmosphere at high speed.
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