Sooting Stars!?

Question

The twinkly ones in the sky!!
I remember hearing once that there is one night in the year when shooting stars appear most often throughout the night... yesi know it would need to be a clear night etc etc
What i would like to know has this night passed or is it later in the year if it even happens at all!!

LOL LOL
So, I cant type but all comments are greatly appreciated, I thank you!!!!!

No, you are truly welcome!

Answer 1

There are several meteor showers during the year.
The Perseid shower will occur next week - Aug 8 - 14 with the peak on the 12th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

Answer 2

Hi there,

Shooting stars (really properly called meteors) are grains of dust burning up in the atmosphere, and can be amazing to see. I'm an amateur astronomer and I've often sat out watching meteors :-)

There are several times of year when there are "showers" of meteors, which can sometimes be really spectacular. There are several sites on the net (listed below) that give you more information on the times, and what meteors are. The figure to note is the "ZHR" which gives you an idea of the number of meteors per hour (but it's a theoretical maximum under ideal conditions, so you'll never get that many really).

To see them properly you need to get away from town or city lights if you can, although in the bigger showers you may see a few from within towns - but nothing like what you'll see well away from "light pollution". Of course the showers in the summer months are going to be harder to see than the winter ones, since the sky's a lot lighter during the night.

Even when there isn't a "shower" you can see meteors any night, just not as frequently. On dark nights, away from the lights, I'd expect to see at least one every 10 minutes.

If you enjoy watching for meteors and want to find out more about what's in the sky, go along to your local astronomy club and they'll be glad to give you any information you want.

Answer 3

There are swarms of rocks that used to comprise comets that have broken up. These are things like the Leonid showers, among others. Some are essentially annual, but others are with less-obvious sequences. Sometimes we just get the fringes of the swarm and other times a bit more direct. After you watch one of the heavy showers, most of the others are positively boring. Still, it is exciting to think that so many big rocks are falling at one general time, most burning up long before they hit the ground. The burning is called ablation as the friction and heat simply strip the material off the front of the rock as it falls, shrinking it increasingly more as it falls.

Answer 4

There are a few events like this at different times of the year in different places, as the earth orbits it passes through small meteor fields.

I study astronomy but off the top of my head can't think of any.

Check on the internet- Just tap in astronomy

Answer 5

What you're describing are called 'meteor showers.' Several of these occur throughout the year. This website will give you a good idea of when to watch for them and where they'll be in the night sky (the meteor shower's name tells you what constellation to watch) ==> http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/zog/ds/socks/metschedule.html

Answer 6

it is not one particular night. the most prolific ones are usually the perseids, geminids and leonid meteor showers (these are named from whichever constellation the appear to be coming from) perseid meteor shower occurs about 8-14 August, with peaks on the 12th. geminid meteor shower occurs about 10-15 December.

Answer 7

There is no specific day or night for shooting stars it all depends on the speed x the distance x size = date.

Answer 8

in italy it used to aug 26 or somewhere around there, but we used to see loads all of the time.

but we were in the middle of nowhere

Answer 9

It varies. There is NOT one night when it happens every year.

Answer 10

yes it happens but nobody can predict when this event will occur.its like earth quack we can't predict in advance.