Meteor Shower: All about the shooting stars above Earth

What is a shooting star? A meteor is a space rock that falls toward Earth and when it reaches the upper atmosphere, the resistance or drag of the air makes it extremely hot and it starts glowing. What we see is a "shooting star".

The bright streak is not exactly the rock but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere.

Now, what exactly is a Meteor Shower? So , there is a very simple theory to understand: When many meteoroids hit Earth's atmosphere at once, we call it a meteor shower.

Why would Earth encounter many meteoroids at once? Well, like Earth, comets and other planets also orbit the Sun and when they enter the inner solar system they start getting warm. Since comets are made up mostly of ice, they start shedding material.

As some of the icy surface boils off, it releases lots of particles of dust and some rock too. Then, when Earth comes along as it orbits the sun, it smacks into a bunch of debris that the comet left behind.

But is it really something to get worried about? The answer is no. The meteoroids are usually small, from dust particles to boulder size.

Most of them are too small or small enough to get burned in the atmosphere and so there's little chance any of them will strike Earth's surface.

But there is a good chance that you can see them in the middle of night in the form of the beautiful shooting stars.

Peak viewing times will vary by a day or two each year. Keep in mind: If the moon is full or near full, you may not see many meteors.