Surely you have ever seen one Shooting Star and you've done the typical thing of making a wish. On a starry night and in a clear sky, you can see shooting stars, especially at certain times of the year. But what is a shooting star really? Can it be harmful? Where does it come from?
In this article we are going to tell you everything you need to know about the shooting star, its origin, characteristics and curiosities.
What is a shooting star
A shooting star (or meteors, which are the same thing) is a small particle (usually between millimeters and a few centimeters). Entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, they "burn" due to air friction (in fact, the glow is caused by ionization) and they produce a light path that passes rapidly through the sky, which we call a shooting star.
Its appearance is very diverse. They can shine a lot or a little. Its trajectory can be short or long. Some leave a bright trail for a while, while others don't. They are usually very fast (they disappear before we have time to speak!). But some are very slow and can last a few seconds. Sometimes they show some colors: reddish, greenish, blue, etc. According to the chemical composition of meteors. The origin of these particles is in comets, and comets lose their material and leave it behind.
If the particle is very large (a few centimeters), the shooting star will be very bright, called a fireball. What we see are balls of ionized air surrounding them. The brightness of the cars is spectacular, making them look more beautiful even during the day. Some may break in their path, show flashes or small explosions, or make sounds. They often leave a continuous trail (this is the trail of ionized air that they leave behind) or smoke. Sometimes they can be bright enough to see behind the clouds, so sometimes we can see the clouds lit up for a moment.
When can they be observed?
Shooting stars can be observed on any clear night, although on certain nights of the year, they are more abundant and atmospheric friction can burn meteors weighing several kilograms. However, if the particle is too large, it may not be able to fully decompose and reach the earth's surface. So the meteor is called a meteorite. Our planet has been receiving meteorites of microscopic sizes and even larger.
One of the largest meteor showers is the Perseids, popularly known as the Tears of Saint Lawrence, which are most likely to be seen in the skies in mid-August. If you want to see a shooting star, there are a few recommendations to keep in mind. It is not safe to go out into the field to look at the sky and see a shooting star. But yes, by following these recommendations, we can increase the probability of seeing one. Let's see what these recommendations are:
- You must leave the city at night and look for an observation point in the field where the sky is completely clear and there is no or minimal light pollution. One of the great problems nowadays to be able to see the starry sky resides in the light pollution caused by the cities. We must bear in mind that the existence of artificial lighting inhibits the night sky. Therefore, if the city where we live is very crowded and bright, we will have to move far enough away so that it does not affect us.
- It is important that the sky is completely clear, since if there are clouds, we won't be able to see the stars. It's also not recommended to observe shooting stars during full moon nights. This is because the reflection of the full moon can also cause light pollution and may obscure our view of other stars closer to it.
- The ideal is to look for a totally clear night with a new moon.
- There are no binoculars or telescopes to use. Direct observation is much more effective when done with the naked eye and once your eyes have adjusted to the darkness and starlight.
Origin and history of the shooting star
Shooting stars look like distant bright stars passing through the night sky. However, a shooting star is not a star at all and it is not very far away. In ancient times, people thought meteors were part of the weather, like lightning or thick fogBut now we know that shooting stars are actually objects from outer space. Rock fragments of various sizes that float through space. Some of these rocks, called meteoroids, are pulled toward Earth and our atmosphere. This attraction is partly due to the action of Earth's gravity, so larger planets are more likely to attract these objects.
These rocks (mostly the size of grains of sand) come close to the ground at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per second, and air friction heats them until they glow like stars. When you see a shooting star, you're actually looking at a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. But you need to see the shooting star quickly, since they usually don't last more than a second or two before disappearing completely. Some meteors that reach Earth don't burn up completely in our atmosphere. Approximately 75 million meteors collide in our atmosphere every day.
Some curiosities
We should mention that the brightness and frequency of shooting stars vary greatly. We observe a large number of smaller-sized, low-brightness shooting stars, and a smaller number of those that are less bright and therefore larger.
When a shooting star is large enough, we can notice that it leaves traces of ionized air that can last for a few minutes. The shooting star's tail glows and its color depends on the ionized gas. For example, the green trail can be caused by ionized (atmospheric) oxygen. Furthermore, the vaporizing elements of a shooting star will produce a color corresponding to its emission spectrum, and it also depends on the temperature reached during the fall.