We've all seen a meteor shower, but do you understand the physics behind it?  A giant rock hurdling through space?  Nope.  It's actually dust burning up in the atmosphere.   Most meteors are no larger than a grain of rice.  The most interesting thing about a meteor shower is that the meteors are mostly stationary relative to the sun.  It's a cloud of dust that sits at the same spot in space all year long.  When we see a meteor shower the Earth is passing through the dust cloud on it's orbit around the sun.   That's why showers occur at the same time each year.  So when you see a meteor streak across the sky, you are not observing the meteors motion, but the motion of the Earth through space on it's journey around the sun.  There is an epic meteor shower tonight, be sure to check it out!  And when you see a meteor think of it as a way of experiencing the enormous speed of the Earth orbiting the sun.  About 67,000 miles per hour.

-Sean Alexander

CEO and Founder of Alexander Mathematics & Physics Tutoring

Become a physics expert at Alexander Tutoring, learn more here:  www.alexandertutoring.com/physics-tutoring/

NASA Meteor Shower