Understanding Meteor Lingo
If you haven’t seen the headlines the past few days, there is a meteor shower visible to us this August, particularly this week. Known as the Perseid meteor shower, it passes by Earth every year but is rarely visible to us, making this year special. Bits of the Comet Swift-Tuttle should appear in the sky as meteors. The comet itself is only visible about every 130 years and was last seen in 1992, so you’ll have to wait until next century to see that. In the meantime, here’s a few things to understand about meteors:
- A meteoroid is the physical particle. The ones that will be visible in the Perseid meteor shower are said to be as tiny as a grain of sand. Asteroids are similar formations but bigger than meteoroids.
- A meteor is the visible path of the meteoroid.
- A meteor shower consists of many meteors.
- A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the ground. 1
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Read on:
ABCNews – Perseid Meteor Shower 2009: Cosmic Show Tonight
Space.com – Top 10 Perseid Meteor Shower Facts
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