Meteor Shower

A atmospheric phenomenon may be a celestial event during which

variety of meteors are observed to radiate from one point within the night sky.
A atmospheric phenomenon occurs when the world intersects a comet's path
and moves through the stream of debris and dirt emitted by the comet. The
meteors in a very shower appear to originate from one area of the sky called
the radiant. The meteor stream is sometimes named after the constellation
during which the radiant lies. meteor stream occurs at the identical time every
year. Common atmospheric phenomenon leads to ten to fifty meteors per
hour. Typically, the most effective time to look at is within the early morning.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_shower,

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Figure 1. Meteor Showers

Meteor showers happen when dust particles from asteroids or comets

enter Earth's atmosphere at very fast speed. Once they hit the atmosphere,
meteors collide against air particles and build resistance, heating the meteors.
the heat evaporates most meteors, making what we call shooting stars.
Though there are stray bits of stuff hitting Earth from all directions, there are
regularly timed "meteor showers" when astronomers can make better
predictions about what fraction meteors will hit the globe, and from what route.
The main difference is that meteor showers occur when the earth plows into
 the trail of particles left behind by a comet or asteroid. Depending on where the
trail of particles falls during a very particular year, meteor showers are often
more or less powerful.

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Astronomers sometimes even find new meteor showers, like the case of
the Camelopardalids in 2014. Initial predictions put the shower at up to 200
meteors per hour, but essentially, it ended up being a quiet shower for amateur
astronomers. The meteor shower became energetic after the fragments trail of
Comet 209P/LINEAR intersected with Earth. (The debris trail of comets can shift
due to the influence of Jupiter, or other reasons.)
Most meteors come into view at around 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) up.
Some large meteors splatter, causing a brighter flash called a fireball, which
might often be seen during the day and heard up to 30 miles (48 km) away. On
typical, meteors can speed over the atmosphere at about 30,000 mph (48,280
kph) and reach temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,648 degrees
Celsius).
Most meteors are very small, some as tiny as a grain of sand, in order
that they disintegrate within the air. Larger ones that reach the surface are called
meteorites and are rare. Whether an object separates apart it still depends on its
composition, speed and angle of entry. A faster meteor at an angle (slanting
instead of straight-on) suffers greater stress. Meteors manufactured from iron
withstand the strain better than those of stone. Even an iron meteor will usually
separates because the atmosphere becomes denser, around 5 to 7 miles up.
(Source: Space.com Staff)

What Causes a Meteor Shower?

Meteor showers occur when the planet in its orbit round the Sun passes
through debris left over from the disintegration of comets. Although the earth's
orbit round the Sun is sort of circular, most comets travel in orbits that are highly
elongated ellipses. As a outcome, some comets have orbits that traverse or
somewhat overlap the earth's path.
Because a comet's nucleus is formed of a mixture of icy materials and
loosely consolidated "dirt," when a comet is heated by passing near the Sun, it
more or less slowly disintegrates, producing the visible tail. The rocky debris,
consisting of mostly sand-size particles, continues in an elongated orbit round
the Sun near that of its parent comet. When the world intersects this orbit in its
annual trip, it can run into this debris, which burns au fait entry into the earth's
atmosphere, producing a visual shower of meteors.
Meteor showers related to particular comet orbits occur at about the
identical time annually, because it's at those points within the earth's orbit that
the collisions occur. However, because some parts of the comet's path are richer
in debris than
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others, the strength of a meteor stream may vary from one year to the following.
Typically, a meteor stream are going to be strongest when the world crosses the
comet's path shortly after the parent comet has passed.
(Source: Scientific American)

Why do meteor showers occur about the same time every year?
 particular
Meteor showers happen only the Earth’s orbit intersects that of a
comet, and people intersections occur at fixed intervals. The Leonid meteors occur
when the planet intersects the orbit of Comet -55P/Tempel
Tuttle, and therefore the
Perseid meteors happen when the world intersects the orbit of Comet
- 109P/Swift
Tuttle. it should be helpful to visualise all those diagrams we saw in science class of
the system from above the plane of the planets. The Earth's orbit was drawn in as an
nearly complete circle. A comet orbit was regularly drawn in as an
nt elongated, elega
ellipse. If we visualize the meteor stream happens when the orbit of the planet crosses
the comet’s orbit, we are able to see that these showers wouldn't only occur at the
identical time annually, but also that their duration would beinvery
mindshort. Put it
that it's very occasional for the orbit of anybody in space to traverse the orbit of the
planet. There are many identified
-period
shortcomets, and only some of meteor
showers.
Source: Timothy B. Spahr
Astronomer, Smithsonian Astrophysical
ator Observ
y