An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

An increased number of → meteors all appearing to → diverge from the direction of a single point, called → radiant.

Meteor showers occur → annually on the same dates, when the Earth crosses through a → meteoroid stream. Meteor showers are named after the → constellation in which the radiant is located. For example, the → Perseids’s radiant lies near the top of the constellation Perseus.

Most meteor showers are caused by → comets. As a comet orbits the Sun it sheds an icy, dusty → debris stream along its orbit. When the Earth’s orbit intersects the dust trail, more meteors are seen as the cometary debris encounters our planet’s → atmosphere.

In the case of the → Geminids and → Quadrantids, those meteor showers come from the debris scattered by orbiting → asteroids.

Typical meteor showers show 15 to 100 meteors per hour at their peak. On very rare occasions, during a → meteor storm, thousands of meteors fall per hour.

Prominent meteor showers are:

→ Quadrantids, → Lyrids, → Eta Aquariids, → Delta Aquariids, → Perseids, → Orionids, → Taurids, → Leonids, → Geminids, → Ursids, → Alpha Capricornids.

See also: → meteor; → shower.