Other light causes our pupils to close up, reducing the number of stars we can see. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The Sun is the brightest sky object at magnitude -26. The brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, is magnitude -1.4.
Stars are enormous gaseous masses held together by gravity.
A meteor shower is the phenomena of many meteors that seem to stream from the same area of sky in a short period of time. Meteor showers typically result when Earth passes through debris left behind by a comet which has crossed the same path. Comet Temple-Tuttle passed close to the Sun in 1998 leaving a replenished trail of debris for Earth to move through. The more debris we pass through, the more meteors. In China the stars Castor and Pollux represent Yin and Yang, the dual forces of nature.