JUNE 30, 2014 – NATIONAL METEOR DAY

                              NATIONAL METEOR DAY

Every year, June 30 celebrates National Meteor Day, also known to some as National Meteor Watch Day.  On this day,  people across the country search the skies hoping to find meteors streaking across their view.

Daily there are millions of meteors that occur in the
Earth’s atmosphere.

“A meteor or “shooting star” is the visible streak of light from a meteoroid or micrometeoroid, heated and glowing from entering the Earth’s atmosphere, as it sheds glowing material in its wake.” (Wikipedia)
The majority of the meteoriods that cause meteors are only the size of a pebble.

Meteors sometimes occur in showers.

Meteors are usually observed at night and are visible when they are about 34 to 70 miles above the Earth and they usually disintegrated at about 31 to 51 miles above.  There glow time is normally about a second.

A very small percent of meteoroids hit the Earth’s atmosphere and then pass out again.  

The chemical composition and the speed of the meteoroid will cause different hues to the light.  Possible colors and elements producing them include:

• Orange/yellow (sodium)
• Yellow (iron)
• Blue/green (copper)
• Purple (potassium)
• Red (silicate)

    Hopefully, while you are out looking for meteors tonight, you are able to spot many of them, in different hues.

HAPPY NATIONAL METEOR DAY!