Meteor shower

A celestial event in which many meteors appear to radiate from one point in the sky as Earth passes through debris left by a comet or asteroid.

Meteoroid: A small natural body traveling through space, smaller than an asteroid. These particles enter Earth’s atmosphere and produce the shower’s visible meteors.
Comet: An icy small Solar System body that releases gas and dust when heated near the Sun. Cometary activity sheds much of the debris that forms meteor streams.
Perseids: An annual meteor shower active in July and August, associated with comet Swift–Tuttle. Its reliable August display makes it a familiar example of a major shower.
Meteor radar: A radar system that detects ionized trails left by meteors in the upper atmosphere. Radar can measure faint shower activity even when daylight or clouds hide visible meteors.
3200 Phaethon: A near-Earth object whose orbit is associated with the Geminid meteor stream. Its asteroid-like appearance and strong dust stream leave its activity and nature under study.
Radiant (meteor shower): The apparent point in the sky from which a meteor shower’s meteors seem to originate. Parallel paths through a debris stream create this perspective effect.
Asteroid: A rocky or metallic small Solar System body that orbits the Sun. Some showers are associated with asteroids or objects on asteroid-like orbits.
Leonids: An annual November meteor shower associated with comet 55P/Tempel–Tuttle. Its history includes exceptional meteor storms when Earth crossed dense debris.
Meteor spectroscopy: The study of light from meteors to determine the chemical composition of their emitting material. Shower spectra help investigate the composition of particles released by parent bodies.
Cometary activity: The release of gas and dust from a comet, usually driven by solar heating. The processes that supply some streams can vary, complicating estimates of their future strength.

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