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Shooting Stars Aren’t Stars

What is a shooting star, if it is not a star?

Every star is still there after the streak: a meteor is the light of a grain of comet or asteroid dust burning up 80–120 km overhead — Halley's, on the Orionids' peak — and a few strays fall on any dark night.

You’ll be able to tell a meteor from a star, say what burns up in one and how high, and name the comet behind a shower.

7 steps · about 5 min

Before this: Meteor Showers (6 min)

Where and which night

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Sources

American Meteor Society, Meteor FAQ — a meteor is the streak a meteoroid makes; grains from sand to a small pebble; 80–120 km up; 11–72 km/s; a meteorite reaches the ground; "no actual star is involved"
American Meteor Society, Meteor FAQ — the height of visible meteors
American Meteor Society, Meteor FAQ — a meteorite is material that survives the passage through the atmosphere
International Meteor Organization — Meteor Shower Calendar: the Orionids' and Eta Aquariids' peaks, radiants, speeds and parent, Comet Halley
Rendtel & Arlt (eds.), IMO Handbook for Visual Meteor Observers (2008) — around ten sporadic meteors an hour on an average dark night
Hipparcos distances, as carried in the star catalogue the tags read

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Sounds Quiet tones as you use the map: a tick as you drag the clock past a mark or dusk, a chime for the star you pick — higher for hotter stars — and a low swell while a figure is out of the dome. Made in your browser, and off until you turn them on.

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Before dawn. A streak of light flashes past Orion and is gone in a moment. The arrows mark where streaks like it ran. A shooting star: what was it?

Count the stars: none is missing, tonight or ever. Each is a sun, and the tags say how far: light-years. Nothing that far away could cross your sky in a second. The streak was much nearer.

A meteor is the streak a speck of rock makes, from a grain of sand to a small pebble, hitting the air at 66 km a second. The speck is a meteoroid; it burns up 80–120 km up, and what glows is the air it heats.

Traced back, tonight's streaks meet by Betelgeuse: the radiant of the Orionids. Their grains were shed by Comet Halley. The Earth crosses its trail each October, and again in May: the Eta Aquariids, peaking on 6 May.

Run an hour of it and watch for streaks. Not all are Halley's: about 10 an hour fall from no shower at all, on any dark night. The stars only turn with the sky.

Rarely, a piece of rock is big enough that some of it survives the fall and lands: a meteorite. Pick one up and it is a scrap of asteroid or comet, never of a star.

The stars stay put; the streaks are dust.

A shooting star is a grain of dust, not a star
It burns up 80–120 km overhead
Showers are comets' dust; strays fall every night