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The Sky is Falling

© Debbie St. Germain

In 1883, many people were certain the sky was falling and the world was coming to an end. The Great Leonid Showers in 1883 gave spectators a dazzling display of fireworks that rained from the sky. It marked the beginning of scientific studies into meteors. The study of meteors is called meteoritics.

The Leonid Showers are meteor storms that strike our atmosphere every year around mid-November. In November the Comet, Temple-Tuttle, crosses earth's path. The debris that disintegrates from the comet produces the meteor storms. So why is it called Leonids and not named after the comet? Meteor showers are named by the radiant or the point from which they originate. This meteor storm radiates from the constellation Leo.

When meteoroids reach the earth's atmosphere, friction is created. The meteoroid's atoms collide with atoms in the hot air of our atmosphere. This produces the light you see, streaming through the sky. This light is called a meteor, also known as a shooting star. If the meteor doesn't burn up completely in the atmosphere and reaches the ground, it becomes a meteorite.

Meteors don't always come from comets. They can come from asteroids and other planets - as they are discovering in Antartica. Scientists have found meteorites they are certain came from Mars. They have found gases in meteorites frozen in the artic ice. These gases are of the same composition as the gases measured by the Viking during the Mars exploration.

With all that debris falling from the skies, could you be hit with a meteorite? There are cases of meteors that have fallen and landed in some pretty precarious places. One woman had a close call as one crashed through her roof and grazed her arm. A couple in Connecticut had an uninvited guest while they were watching television. A three-pound meteorite came crashing through the roof. Luckily no one was hurt.

In 1908, a meteor struck a remote area in Tunguska. One man's account told of a dazzling fireball that bought a wave of hot air. The force blew him off his feet, throwing him to the ground. Five miles from the impact site, a whole herd of reindeer was annihilated.

There are sites all over the world were meteors left their mark. When a large enough meteor hits the earth, it leaves a crater. In Arizona a crater was discovered that is 4,200 feet across and 600 feet deep. Quebec has one even larger. It is two miles across and 800 feet deep.