Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Tiny dust grains burn up in the upper atmosphere to create shooting stars. The figure is taken from NOAA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through comet debris trails

Tiny dust grains burn up in the upper atmosphere to create shooting stars

As comets loop around the Sun, thermal heating causes ice to sublimate and shed clouds of dust and gravel along their orbital paths. When Earth's orbit crosses these dense debris streams annually, tiny dust particles enter the upper atmosphere at high speed, vaporising into bright meteor streaks.

Where this comes from

NOAA

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Science trivia Day Counter

More facts like this

The Kuiper Belt holds hundreds of thousands of icy bodiesA vast ring of primordial debris extends far beyond Neptune orbit The Oort Cloud is a distant spherical shell of cometsTrillions of icy objects orbit up to one hundred thousand AU from the Sun Neptune features the fastest winds in the solar systemSupersonic storms on Neptune reach speeds over two thousand kilometres per hour Sunsets on Mars appear blue to the human eyeFine Martian dust scatters red light while allowing blue light to pass through Saturn features a permanent hexagonal cloud pattern at its north poleA six-sided atmospheric jet stream spans 30,000 kilometres across Saturn pole Auroras are powered by energetic solar wind colliding with upper airEarth magnetic field funnels charged particles toward polar atmosphere gases

Tags: meteors, comets, atmosphere

Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through comet debris trails: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Tiny dust grains burn up in the upper atmosphere to create shooting stars. The figure is taken from NOAA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.