Space

• Meteors


  Streaks of light in the sky caused by dust and sand sized rocks burning up as they hit Earth's upper atmosphere at very high speeds, often over 100,000 kms per hour
• Shooting stars


  Commonly used term for meteors, but they aren't actually stars
• On a typical night from a dark location, you might be lucky enough to see up to 10 meteors per hour
• Meteor shower


  When the Earth passes through the dusty debris that was left behind by a comet or asteroid, resulting in more visible meteors in the sky
• Meteor showers reoccur at about the same time every year as Earth passes through the debris again
• Radiant


  The point in the sky where the meteors appear to emanate from
• Meteor showers are named after the constellation that contains the radiant of the shower
• When you watch a meteor shower, you're seeing direct evidence of our planet orbiting the Sun
• The best time to see a meteor shower is between midnight and pre-dawn, because that's when you're on the leading side of the earth moving right into the debris
• Meteoroid


  The object while in space
• Meteor


  The short moment while the meteoroid is entering the atmosphere and burning up into a visible streak of light
• Meteorite


  Any part of the meteoroid that survives and lands on Earth
• To find out when the next meteor shower will be visible, click the link in the description