What Is A Shooting Star Made Of

How rare are shooting stars?

Geminids meteor shower_Haitong Yu via Getty Images

The Geminids meteor shower is a corking opportunity to see shooting stars. (Prototype credit: Haitong Yu via Getty Images)

An old superstition suggests that if yous wish upon a meteor, your wish will be granted. The implication is that shooting stars are and then rare, and your sighting so fortuitous, that you've been specially selected for a dose of good luck.

Only are shooting stars actually all that elusive? And what are they, exactly?

A shooting star is a "common, if inaccurate, proper name for a meteor," or a space rock that collides with Earth's atmosphere, said Edwin Charles Krupp, an astronomer and director of the Griffith Observatory (opens in new tab) in Los Angeles.

Meteors that are called shooting stars appear equally "a flash of calorie-free" to sky-gazers, Krupp told Live Science. "This light is the visible trail of gases in Earth's upper temper [that are] heated to incandescence by the high-speed passage of a meteoroid, or meteoric particle, intercepting the World." Quite simply, a "shooting star" is a piece of space stone or dust that briefly becomes visible when information technology begins to fire up in our planet's atmosphere. Much of this fabric comes from the asteroid belt betwixt Mars and Jupiter.

Related: Why are asteroids and comets such weird shapes?

So, how mutual are shooting stars? How often practise these flashy space rocks come into contact with Earth's atmosphere, and what's the all-time way to encounter them?

"Meteors occur all of the time, all over the Earth, but are merely seen at dark," Krupp said. Most extraterrestrial rubble that collides with the atmosphere is "very minor, typically the size of a grain of sand," he added.

The number of meteors visible to the unaided centre under a truly dark sky in a 24-hr catamenia all over Earth is estimated to be 25 million (opens in new tab), according to a Academy of Oregon written report. However, Earth too intercepts many smaller particles that are too faint to be detected by the unaided eye, Krupp noted.

In the night

If you want to see shooting stars, it'south important to find a dark sky location, Krupp said. Dark heaven sites have very low levels of low-cal

pollution

and allow uninterrupted views of the nighttime sky.

Since 2001, the

International Dark Heaven Places conservation program

, run past the International Dark-Heaven Association (IDSA), has encouraged communities to "preserve nighttime sites through responsible lighting policies and public education." The IDSA also dictates whether a site can officially be called a "nighttime sky," and has, to date, awarded 195 areas around the world dark sky status.

Certain sites have "aureate-tier night sky" status, which is the IDSA'due south highest possible rating. Some of the best nighttime sky areas include

Northumberland National Park

in England, the largest gilt-tier nighttime heaven park in Europe; the

Key Idaho Dark Sky Reserve

, the first gold-tier dark heaven preserve in the United states of america; and the Atacama Desert in Chile, which contains La Silla Observatory, home to some of the world's about powerful telescopes. (You can encounter a comprehensive list of the world's best dark sky sites at

this page from the International Nighttime-Sky Association

Unfortunately, and largely due to human being activity, pristinely dark skies are increasingly hard to notice. According to the "

World Atlas of Bogus Nighttime Heaven Effulgence

," around 80% of the world's population lives under "skyglow," which the

U.S. Department of Energy defines

as "an increase in the credible effulgence of the night sky that can serve to reduce visibility for astronomical observation." In the U.S. and Europe, it's estimated that 99% of people live nether some caste of skyglow.

Starlink, Elon Musk'southward internet-enabling satellite network, is also causing issues for astronomers. Once fully operational, there could be 42,000 Starlink satellites (opens in new tab) orbiting World, something that has led the International Astronomical Matrimony to create the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Placidity Heaven from Satellite Constellation Interference (opens in new tab) to "mitigate the negative bear on of satellite constellations."

Related: How did the Milky way get its name?

For most people, Krupp said, seeing a falling star is a rare upshot because "we take lost the nighttime sky to light pollution," which "unnecessarily denies the states the stars." Krupp also believes that many of us are guilty of being "busied by other things" and, equally a result, ofttimes don't take the time to expect at and adore the sky. But he is confident that a person who deliberately and purposefully watches the sky on a clear nighttime from a location "untarnished by artificial light" will be able to see "five to 10 meteors per hour," if not more.

"All you've got to do is become outside, find a nice night spot, lie flat on your back and expect up," Bill Cooke, caput of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Function at the Marshall Space Flying Center in Alabama, previously told Live Scientific discipline. "You don't want binoculars. You lot don't desire a telescope. You just use your eyes."

There are also times throughout the year when people are more likely to come across shooting stars. Shooting star showers, which occur when Earth annually passes through the "persistent ring of droppings shed past a comet," give stargazers a much ameliorate take a chance of seeing a host of shooting stars. These events tin be predicted to the day, cheers to the reliability of Earth'due south orbit around the sun. For example, the Perseid falling star shower (opens in new tab), which ofttimes peaks in August, can shower Earth with every bit many as 50 to 100 visible meteors per hour (opens in new tab).

Shooting stars are, it would appear, far more common than most people think — you just have to await upwards at the right time and be in the right place.

Originally published on Live Science.

Joe Phelan is a journalist based in London. His work has appeared in VICE, National Geographic, Globe Soccer and The Blizzard, and has been a invitee on Times Radio. He is drawn to the weird, wonderful and under examined, besides equally anything related to life in the Chill Circle. He holds a available'southward degree in journalism from the University of Chester.