Learn

When is dust beautiful? When it’s cosmic! Did you know that the earth is constantly being hit by space dust? There are trillions of tiny rocks and dust particles in outer space and the earth runs into about 400 tons of this dust every single day!

This is not boring, normal, just lie around kind of dust. This dust can put on quite a show! Most of the specks of dust burn up when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the shooting stars that we can see on a clear night. Usually no bigger than a grain of sand, the specs that burn up completely before reaching the Earth’s surface are called meteoroids. Meteors are the streaks of light in the sky that meteoroids create, and are commonly known as falling stars or shooting stars.

Every now and then something so big comes our way that it doesn’t burn up completely when it hits our atmosphere. If it is a rock big enough to survive the trip through our atmosphere and land on the ground, it is called a meteorite.

You usually can’t predict when a meteoroid or meteorite will hit our atmosphere and burn up. If you happen to be lucky enough to see one, you will see a stunning sight as it streaks across the night sky.

However, August is a great month to increase your luck. A meteor shower known as the Perseid Meteor Shower happens every August! A meteor shower occurs when the Earth goes through the tail of a comet!

As a comet journeys through our solar system, the Sun’s heat melts away part of the comet’s center or nucleus. The dust that was trapped in the nucleus is released and left to drift in space along the path of the comet.

When the Earth crosses the comet’s path, all those trailing dust particles collide with our atmosphere. They burn up and create a shower of meteors. It’s a marvelous show if you can catch it!