Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 5-9 Subject: Astronomy

Meteor Showers

August 12th marks the annual return of the Perseids, the "Old Faithful" of meteor showers. It's an astronomical event that stargazers have been watching for over 2000 years.

Remember when the little chicken thought the sky was falling? In one sense he was right. The so-called vacuum of space is actually quite full of stuff, and the earth gets hit by it all the time; an estimated 25 million meteors fly through the atmosphere every day.

Most meteors come from the debris spewed out from the tails of comets — specks of dust, ice, and small pebbles — that burn up within seconds of hitting the atmosphere. But in that brief shining moment, they put on quite a show.

In this week's lesson you will learn about meteors, meteor showers, and meteorites. And you will find out where and when to be on the lookout for this year's Perseids.

American Meteor Society

This week's lesson begins with a visit to the Comets and Meteor Showers site from the American Meteor Society. Click Calendar and then August. This page tells you the best times and days for spotting meteor activity. As you can see, the major activity for August is the Perseids.

Now click Perseids (PER) link. On this page you can learn all about the meteor shower that is the topic of this week's lesson. Read How to Observe and check out the chart that shows the Radiant of the shower (this is the area where most shooting stars will be coming from). Keep scrolling down and read the History of the Perseids. When was the earliest record of the Perseids? Who discovered that the Perseids come from the Swift-Tuttle comet? How did he figure this out?

Now return to the main page and click Education Corner. On this page you will read the difference between a comet, a meteor, and an asteroid. Look for links to videos, which will help you see what author Gary Kronk is talking about. How are these three things different? How are they the same? What is each made of?

Anticipating the Perseids

Next stop for this week's lesson is the Science @ NASA site. Click Anticipating the Perseids, an article from July 31. Read the article about this annual meteor shower, and find out why last year's meteor shower was unforgettable. When is the best time to view the meteors this year? Where should you be watching? What time will the moon be visible that morning?

By the way, if you want to listen to this article as you read it, click streaming audio or downloadable file near the top of the page.

Meteoroids and Meteorites

What's the difference between a meteor, a meteoroid, and a meteorite? Find out by visiting the Views of the Solar System site and clicking Meteorites. You will learn in the introduction that a meteor is a streak of light across the sky (a falling star), and that a meteoroid is a particle of matter in space (it's the particle that causes the streak when it enters the atmosphere). A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the surface of the Earth without being completely vaporized.

You can see what a meteor looks like by carefully and patiently watching the night skies. If you want to see what a meteorite looks like, view the pictures of meteorites at the bottom of the page.

What were most of the meteorites on this page found? What minerals are they made of? What can scientists learn from meteorites?

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