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As these rocks enter Earth's atmosphere at high speeds, friction causes them to burn up, briefly leaving streaks of light. The color of these fireballs can be used to determine the composition of the meteoroid, if it does not reach the ground and become a meteorite for analysis.
Meteor showers derive from Earth's annual passing through the debris trail of a comet in its orbit around the sun. The most popular showers are named after the constellation near where they show up at their peak—for example, the Perseids appear to fall from the formation Perseus. Thousands of objects from the size of a grain of sand to small boulders light up in the atmosphere 60 miles above the Earth's surface, traveling at roughly 30,000 mph. This short video provides a basic overview of what causes meteor showers and how humans have interpreted them over the centuries.
Roughly 50 tons of meteorite material arrives on Earth every day, and many of the larger objects survive the hot temperatures of the atmosphere and make landfall. This tracker compiles data from survey sites across the globe to present the latest...
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