Meteors and You

Meteors, also known as shooting stars, are pieces of dust and debris from space that burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, where they can create bright streaks across the night sky. When Earth passes through the dusty trail of a comet or asteroid’s orbit, the many streaks of light in the sky are known as a meteor shower. — Space.com



Meteors and Sci-Fi

This week we are looking at meteors! Meteors are a part of what I call “solar weather” and you really can’t have science fiction without them!

Meteors are considerably smaller than asteroids but often originate in asteroid belts. They break away when gravitational forces of passing planets jar them out of their normal movements causing what we see as meteor showers here on Earth.

What Colors Mean

That being said, there are many different elements that can make up a meteor.

And, even better, there’s a way to identify it if your planet has an atmosphere conducive to meteors burning as it enters. How do you feel about describing a spectacular meteor shower by describing what colors they glow as they burn?

[image error]Meteor

If your meteors
mostly glow orange-yellow they are made up of sodium.

If they glow yellow
they are made of iron.

If they glow
blue-green they are made of magnesium.

If they glow violet
you can bet they are made of calcium.

Finally, if they
glow red they are made of nitrogen/oxygen.

This gives you a HUGE range to describe a meteor shower on your respective planets. Now, there are other aspects to meteor showers too. Sonic booms can happen.

Sonic Booms!

Sonic booms are from the meteor travelling faster than the speed of sound through the upper atmosphere. Often this sound happens after the light disappears.

You can also have what they describe as “crackling, swishing, and hissing” sounds. The last three sounds can also happen during intense Aurora events, however, that is another post altogether!

[image error]Asteroid

Now, you have to consider if you want showers on your planet as well. If you do, then you’ll likely have to figure out whatever orbit path it takes and when showers happen.

On Earth, they tend to happen with some regularity. So you will likely have to draw up a small map of the system to help you figure out when/if the showers would occur. This seems tedious, but it could be a lot of fun as well!

Fireballs!

FIREBALLS! These can be a fun twist to your story. They are far brighter than normal meteors. They often light up the night sky as if it is daytime, and there have been many videos of them recorded.

They don’t seem to happen often because many occur over the ocean and during the day. However, what if your party/hero saw one at night? Certainly it would be unnerving.

[image error]Meteor

If you were to go that route, you would have the subsequent booms of it exploding above the planet surface, or earthquake from it impacting the surface.

On top of that, you could have it create a new crater—changing the landscape forever! It could even impact the environment. If they were to travel to the crater, they could find a meteorite.

A meteorite is a portion of the meteor that survives the trip through your atmosphere without being destroyed. It could be just what your party/hero needs!

Until next time space travelers!
C. Brady

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