"Like clockwork, there are a series of celestial events and sights that reappear at the same time with each passing year. The Earth, revolving around the Sun in its orbit, not only sees the night sky's constellations and deep-sky objects change along with its relative position to the Sun, but also encounters barely visible debris streams from volatile orbiting bodies - comets and asteroids - at predictable intervals throughout the year."
"The asteroids and comets orbit the Sun, heating up when they draw near, causing them to outgas, break apart, and emit particles. Those particles get stretched into the shape of the invisible ellipse that traces out their orbits, and when Earth passes through those ellipses, we get the same meteor showers year after year. January's Quadrantids, April's Lyrids, August's Perseids, October's Orionids, and November's Leonids are among the most famous recurrent meteor showers,"
Earth orbits the Sun and passes through streams of debris left by comets and asteroids, producing recurring meteor showers each year. Comets and asteroids release particles when heated near the Sun through outgassing, fragmentation, and particle emission, which become elongated along their orbital ellipses. When Earth's orbit intersects those particle-filled ellipses, meteors are produced. Famous annual showers include the Quadrantids, Lyrids, Perseids, Orionids, and Leonids. The Geminids, originating from asteroid 3200 Phaethon rather than a comet, peak December 13–14 and can reach about 150 meteors per hour.
Read at Big Think
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