How would you like to have a fireworks show delivered to your door? Check the newspaper and watch to see when the next meteor shower is coming! Astronomers know where to tell you to look because the meteors are usually pieces of comets that are located in one area of the sky at certain times of the year. The meteors are pulled in toward Earth as it follows its orbit around the sun. Have you ever wondered why we call them meteor showers rather than meteorite showers? Because up in space, they are called meteoroids, then they become meteors when they reach Earth's atmosphere, but they're not actually called meteorites until they hit the ground. Have you ever seen someone try to rub two sticks together to make a fire? What they are doing is creating friction, light, and heat. This is the same thing that happens as the meteors rush through the Earth's atmosphere.

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If meteorites are chunks of space rock that hit planets, what do you call chunks of space rock that miss the planets? You must figure out the special way to hold the book to read the silly answer to this riddle!

What Was That?

Some meteors cause a sonic boom like a jet because they are moving so quickly. They can also burst into flame, and if they are large enough they can be seen in the daytime and are called fireballs or bolides. The best time for you to see a meteor shower is usually after midnight, so gather the kit you have for watching stars and be sure to ask an adult to join you. Meteors can be seen even when a shower isn't scheduled, so keep your eyes open. If you thought that you saw where a meteorite landed, would you know one if you found it? Some people like to try and find the pieces of a meteorite if they can tell where a big one has fallen. They organize hunts and will sometimes let volunteers help them look. The hunters can learn where the meteorite came from by having an expert check it out. Most of them are made out of metal or stone, just like the rocks here on Earth, but they were created when the solar system was forming. They can come from other planets, the moon, and asteroids. Keep watching the skies and maybe you will get to help look for one. If you think you see one, be sure to tell your family and have them help you watch it. To learn more about meteorites, type in “museum & meteorites” to see pictures of them and a list of natural history museums that display them.

What's in a Name?

What's another name for a large meteor? Are they just small asteroids that have entered Earth's atmosphere? Some astronomers call Ceres a planetoid or a minor planet because of its size and the fact that it orbits the Earth. In astronomy's constantly changing vocabulary, today it might be called a small dwarf planet!What do you think Earth Grazers (EGAS) would be? If you said it's just another name for the near-Earth asteroids, you're right. Just to make it more confusing, some people also called the meteors that skim the top of the atmosphere and leave a long, glowing line the same thing. Have you heard the word binary, which means two of something? Astronomers use it when they are talking about stars, but there are also binary asteroids. When two people are born at the same time, we call them twins, even if they don't look exactly the same. The same is true for binary asteroids. Some of these asteroids have satellites that make an orbit around them just like our moon does around Earth! So when is a moon not a moon? Would you believe that many of the moons in the solar system are actually captured asteroids? Many of them are very small, have weird shapes, and travel back wards as they circle their planets. Many of the moons located in Saturn's rings are so small that they aren't called moons anymore; they've been downgraded or reduced in name to moonlets!