Shooting Stars - A Very Terrible Portend Or A Thing Of Beauty
The beauty of a shooting star crossing the night sky is undeniable, but while for some people
this is very romantic, for others it just suggests a bad omen. The perception of the shooting star in
different parts of the world implies diverse meanings associated
with old beliefs sometimes. Thus, westerners commonly make a wish when they
see a falling star, while in other parts of the globe, any shooting
star represents a sign that someone has passed away. Yet,
even if popular beliefs give
different explanations to these cosmic phenomena, they have a very reasonable and easy to
understand scientific background. The fact is that we incorrectly call it a shooting star, as the thing in itself has nothing
of the attributes of a real star. Click over here for additional
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A shooting star is a meteoroid, or some form of
debris that enters
Earth’s atmosphere and gets on fire. The great friction of the air masses and the presence of the oxygen associated with the incredible speed of the meteoroid cause the star-like appearance. Thus, the combustion of the shooting star is complete before reaching the
surface of the planet. Larger meteoroids that don’t burn completely because of their
size fall on the ground causing
crater formations. Such falling stars are known as meteors.
Scientists can identify the chemical
structure of a shooting star by observing the light specter during the descent as well as the
trajectory through the atmosphere. Though observable with the naked eye
only at night, meteoroids and meteors also fall during
the day, but this time they can be
identified only by radio signals, with the sunlight preventing their observation otherwise. Thus, scientists have
concluded that the weight and structure of a shooting star can vary
a lot from snowball lightness to metal heaviness. A very unusual phenomenon is that of a shooting star that passes through just a sector of the
atmosphere without burning completely before resuming its journey in outer space. You
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A shooting star with a high burning intensity is called a
fireball and the measurements result from comparing the light intensity of
the meteor with that of a planet. As beautiful
as it may look, a shooting star has a huge
destructive potential if it is not totally combusted during the
flight through the atmosphere. Past collisions proved
devastating for ecosystems, with vegetation and animal
losses; should such a shooting star fall in a city,
the impact would be that of a bomb dropping, with
the intensity of the explosion varying according to the size of the meteorite. You can
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Posted: November 2nd, 2009 under Arts.
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