What are meteor showers,what are the effects on earth, when did they happen, and what are most famous ones?

Question

please tell me every thing you know about meteor showers, and/or meteors,and/or meteorites.

Answer 1

Meteor showers are the result of the Earth passing through debris streams left in orbit around the sun by comets.
There are dozens of named meteor showers - they occur each year around the same dates.
The one this weekend is the Draconids, but its relatively weak.
The next major one is the Orionids in late October (peak is Oct 21).
The next big one is the Geminids in December.

Meteors appear as bright streaks of light in the night sky, the result of the small bits of rock debris (from comets) burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
They occur when they the object enters the atmosphere, and at around 80 km altitude the air is thick enough to cause friction with the object.

I know a lot more, but the way to learn is to read for yourself. wikipedia is pretty good, it even has a list of all the meteor showers each year and their relative strength and numbers of meteors expected per hour.

Answer 2

Meteors are small bits of dust that enter Earth's upper atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour and make the air glow briefly before they vaporize as they slow down in the air. There are different groups of them, called showers, every year. The famous showers are the Leonids in November and Perseids in August.