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Earth and the Moon

Meteors and Meteorites

What is a meteor shower?

Meteors are often called “shooting stars” because they are bright for a moment and move quickly across the sky. Usually, a shooting star appears in the sky about once an hour or so. Sometimes, though, a large number of meteors appear in the sky over the course of a several nights. These meteors will appear to come from the same part of the sky, and dozens or hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of meteors can be seen every hour. We call such dazzling displays meteor showers. The strongest meteor showers are sometimes called meteor storms.



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