This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Social streakers come and go, but Hecate, the dreaded Greek Goddess of Night, has been at it for a long time, and she is more predictable. Her meteors can be see on any dark, clear night and are most numerous during meteor showers. These showers occur when clouds of debris in orbit around the sun intersect the earth's atmosphere. Lyrids appear between Vega and Hercules, Aquarids southwest of the square of Pegasus and Perseids in Perseus.
Most meteors are tiny bits of dust that burn up high in the atmosphere.
Not infrequently, very bright meteors flash across the sky creating daylight brilliance. Only rarely does a meteoric particle survive the fiery passage through the air long enough to strike the ground and become known as a meteorite. Such an incident is reported to have occurred in China on March 8. A large meteor broke up and many tiny meteorites were found. Among them was one fragment weighing over 3,400 pounds.