Anna Faszcza When You Wish Upon a Star

Do you like to watch the sky and search for star constellationsstar constellations [star constellation]star constellations? Do you know that a star is actually a ball of gas? What is a shooting starshooting starshooting star then? Is it the same as an ordinary star? You’d better investigate it thoroughly before you make a wish upon a star next time!

If you’ve ever happened to observe the clear skyclear sky clear sky at night, you probably noticed that there are a great number of things to be seen including the Moon, stars, and even some planets, or other celestial bodiescelestial bodies [celestial body]celestial bodies. A.___ People take it for a shooting star, which it’s not.

Many stargazersstargazers [stargazer] stargazers will find it absolutely astonishing that meteors are called meteoroidsmeteorids [meteorid]meteoroids as long as they stay in the solar systemSolar Systemsolar system. B. ___ When meteoroidsmeteorids [meteorid]meteoroids fall through the Earth’s atmospherefall through the Earth’s atmospherefall through the Earth’s atmosphere, they are start to be called meteorsmeteors [meteor]meteors. When they fall toward the Earth, they move so fast that they heat up the air around them and burn up, making the air glow. This is what we call a shooting star. It turns out that hardly any meteor will hit the surface of our globe because most of them will be destroyed in the atmosphere. Consequently, there is nothing to worry about if pieces of rocks fall towards the Earth.

If more than one meteor burns up in the Earth’s atmosphereburns up in the Earth’s atmosphere [burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere]burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, then there is a meteor showermeteor showermeteor shower. C. ___ A meteor shower appears when the Earth’s orbit crosses the orbit of a comet, which leaves behind the trails of rocky material. In other words, a cometcometcomet passes near the path where the Earth moves around the Sun. As it passes by, some dust from the comet breaks off. It can stay in space for a very long time. Every year, when the Earth gets close to the place with the dust and as it moves around, the Earth gets sprinkled with rocky material. Each little piece of dust creates a meteor. Those meteors can be of various sizes: they can be as small as grains of sand, or pebblespebbles [pebble]pebbles, or as giant as rocks!

There are different meteor showers throughout the year. The biggest meteor shower is called the Perseids, and it takes place around August 12th. You do not need to go to an observatory nor have a telescope to see a spectacular light show. Meteor showers can be seen on a clear night!

However, some meteors do reach the surface of the Earth and hit the ground. Those are called meteoritesmeteorites [meteorite]meteorites. They mostly land in the oceans or remote, uninhabited areas. D. ___

Nearly 50 tons of space debrisspace debris space debris crash into the Earth daily. The biggest meteorite ever found on Earth is Hoba in Africa. This piece of space rock and metal weighs over 60 tons! Most meteorites aren’t that heavy. Their usual weight is less than a pound. Another interesting example is the meteorite in China. That one is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old! It seems to be as old as our planet or even older!

1 Źródło: Anna Faszcza, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.