Understanding Shooting Stars and Meteor Phenomena

Despite their name, shooting stars aren't stars at all. They're actually meteoroids—small particles from a comet or asteroid—that burn up upon entering the Earth's atmosphere, creating a streak of light.

Shooting stars, or meteors, blaze through the atmosphere at speeds ranging from 11 to 72 kilometers per second. That's up to 260,000 kilometers per hour, fast enough to travel around Earth in 6 minutes!

Meteors can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a boulder. Earth encounters millions of meteoroids daily, but most are too small to see and disintegrate quickly in the atmosphere.

The color of a meteor's trail is determined by its composition and the atmosphere's gases. Iron-rich meteors glow yellow, magnesium produces a blue-green color, and nitrogen and oxygen create a red or purple hue.

The Perseids and Geminids are two of the most famous meteor showers. The Perseids occur every August and arise from Comet Swift-Tuttle, while the Geminids appear in December and stem from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

When meteoroids survive the fiery trip through the atmosphere and land on Earth, they're called meteorites. These space rocks are invaluable to science, offering clues about the solar system's formation.

Shooting stars have played a dramatic role in Earth's history. For example, the Chicxulub impactor, a massive meteorite, is believed to have caused the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Antarctica is a treasure trove for meteorites. Its icy landscape preserves them perfectly, making it the best place on Earth to find these space rocks!