THE LEONID STORM IS COMING | Everything You Need To Know About Shooting Stars

There wouldn´t be a sky full of stars if we were all meant to wish on the same one. - Frances Clark

I am pretty sure that everyone of you already saw a shooting star or at least knows what it is. I got to know about shooting stars when I was a little kid. I have written in some personal articles that I grew up in a small village besides farms and big fields. There weren´t any lights at night so my family and I could watch shooting stars all night long. I remember the days when the wether got cold during the winter time and my mom, siblings and I grabbed some blankets, cozy socks and snacks while we prepared our shooting star/storm gazing outside in the garden. I could easily sit there for hours and just watch the sky doing it´s thing...

I always come home late because my house is still located in a village 1 hour away from Hamburg, the city where my life actually happens and I need to drive back after long meetings and work sessions but I am not planning on staying and living in Germany for a longer time so I chose to stay in my village instead of moving closer. Anyway, back to what I wanted to stay. I am  always coming home late at night, like 3 or 4 am in the morning when all other´s are still asleep and all lights are turned off! That´s the best possibility to watch the stars and calm down after a stressed day. Since I grew up and got pretty busy, I hadn´t had the time to really sit down, relax and watch the sky at night which is a little sad but not unchangeable. I recently realized that I have seen more than three shooting stars in less than a week and I couldn´t even remember the last time I saw a shooting star! Now it happened three times in a row which is not a fortune in my opinion. I did some researches on this topic and found out that the Leonid storm is coming tonight! It´s not viewable from all over the world but I am still telling you a little bit about it.

In the night from Friday to Saturday, the falling star stream of the Leonids reaches its peak. Triggers of the sky spectacle are the wreckage of the comet 55P / Tempel-Tuttle. They enter the Earth's atmosphere when the earth collides with the cloud of particles once a year in its orbit. As in 2016, experts are expecting about 20 falling stars per hour this year. According to astronomers, the sky lights should still be seen until 29 November. 

But WHAT are shooting stars exactly? Are they actual stars or just some lights flying over the sky and we have the chance to wish anything what´s on our mind? 

Here are 7 facts about falling stars... 

1. Shooting stars seem to be distant bright stars that cross the night sky, but a shooting star is not a star at all and it is much closer than we think! 

2. Shooting stars are small fragments of rock. From 1 millimeter to several centimeters normally. These pieces of rock, called Meteoroids, are floating everywhere in the universe. Some are attracted to earth and enter into our atmosphere. 

3. When a Meteoroid comes into the atmosphere and strikes the surface it is called "Meteorite". When it disintegrates  in the atmosphere before reaching the ground, it is called "Meteor" or shooting star...Most shooting stars burn between 80 and 120 km above the earth (50 and 75 miles). 

4. These rocks (mostly the seize of grains of sand) approach to earth... At speeds ranging from 11 km/s up to 80 km/s (from 6.8 to 50 miles per second). When they collide with the atmosphere, they are heated due to air friction until they shine with the intensity like a star. You´re actually seeing a meteor burning in our own atmosphere. 

5. The color of shooting stars is determined by two factors: The chemical composition of the Meteoroid and the interaction of atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. For example iron generates a yellow light, magnesium a greenish blue light and ionized calcium a purple light. 

6. The origin of the particles is mainly in comets. On their path, they loose matter and leave it behind them. 

On earth...

There are several meteor showers each year. The main ones are 7:

Quadrantids

Lyrids

Perseids

Draconides

Orionids 

Leonids

Geminids

7. Usually shooting stars do not last more than 1 or 2 seconds before disappearing. Atmospheric friction is able to burn meteors up to several kilograms. It is very difficult to estimate how many shooting stars fall to earth each day. But on average, it is estimated that a sizable Meteoroid falls to earth every 30 seconds more or less of which 500 reach the surface every year. Since you have begun reading this article at least 16 meteoroids have fallen to earth. 

You see, there is a lot of information about simple shooting stars. Maybe you already knew most of it but it is interesting to teach children the same. But how do people came up with the idea to make a wish when you saw a fallen star? 

As far as the origin of this practice is concerned, legend has it that wishing upon a shooting star makes the wish come true. This belief dates back to around AD 127-151 when Greek astronomer Ptolemy wrote that occasionally, out of curiosity or even boredom, the Gods peer down at the earth from between the spheres.

Maybe it´s also brought to us because shooting stars are normally very rare and you are lucky when you got to see one. Would be the perfect timing for a wish right? 

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If you follow me since day one, you know that I am posting about topics that inspire me at the current moment. I do not plan any of my articles (except the Steemfest ones) and everything that I am sharing with you is coming right out of my mind. Today I got inspired by seeing so many shooting stars during the last few days just like I wrote above. I always got the question what my blog is all about when I attended on Steemfest 2 but honestly, I didn´t have the right answer even not right now. I am just posting what is on my mind and what could help my followers to grow. To grow as souls and making them more confident than they were before... 

I hope you liked this little astro journey

Stay focused 

Love, Soldier