Photo Credit: NASA
Every summer evening, starting in July and thoughout August you can be willing to bet that a few meteors will streak across the sky. The Perseids meteor shower comes to a peak of activity on August 12th. Falling stars or meteors are not stars. Meteors are very small pieces of comet-stuff which have entered the Earth's atomsphere. Most of this dust and debris is no bigger than a grain of sand. The atmospheric friction causes it to heat up, ionize and glow like crazy for a few moments until it is consumed. Really large pieces occassionally make it to the ground to be found as meteorites.
You need dark skies to see these streaks of light and unfortunately this year, there is an almost full moon to contend with. Even so, it's still worth taking out the lawn chairs and looking up -at least until the moon is up high. Enjoy!
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