Meteor Showers 101 | National Geographic

They light up the sky and fall toward Earth at speeds 32 times faster than a speeding bullet. Meteor showers have been mesmerizing us for centuries, and they're a beautiful reminder that we are part of a busy and mystical solar system.

But what exactly are meteor showers? Where do they come from, and are they dangerous to humans? This is Meteor Showers 101. A meteor shower occurs when the trail of interplanetary debris, like the one left behind by comets or asteroids, enters the Earth's atmosphere. The interplanetary debris is mostly made up of space rocks, also called meteoroids.

As the meteoroids fall toward Earth, they produce drag throughout the rock. This causes the meteoroid to heat up. The streak of intensity we see is the hot air left behind the burning rock. When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it a meteor shower.

Meteor showers are usually named for the constellation in which their radiant appears. The most common and famous meteor showers are Perseids, Leonids, Geminids, and Lyrids. However, it is estimated that there are around 21 meteor showers every year, with most of them occurring between August and December.

Meteors enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds ranging from 25,000 mph to 160,000 mph. It's frightening to imagine all that interplanetary debris flying toward us. Cameras around the world have captured meteors falling from the sky, and although some eventually hit, most of them disintegrate or burn off.

The remaining pieces fall into the ocean. When they survive the fall and hit land, we call them meteorites. Scientists estimate that most meteors are the size of a pebble. In fact, 99% of the approximately 50 tons of space debris that falls on the Earth's surface every day is of that size.

Some meteorites, however, are as large as boulders. The largest meteorite found on Earth is the Hoba meteorite, discovered in Namibia in 1920. It weighs roughly 119,000 lb. It's meteors of that magnitude—and potentially bigger ones—that inspire scientists to dedicate their careers to understanding how they form and how they travel through our solar system. In order to better comprehend them and look for ways to reduce their damage.