meteor shower experiment

Meteor Showers

August 2016 | By Ian Webster

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Even the best, most high-tech telescopes available today can’t see all the small bits of debris in space known as meteoroids. These space rocks range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. But for the common, tiny ones, we generally only know they exist when they burn up in the atmosphere, leaving brief, blazing streaks of light. These “shooting stars” are technically called meteors once they enter the atmosphere.

The United States does not have radar dedicated to finding meteors, but camera networks can look for streaks of light in the sky and calculate their speeds and trajectories. NASA has a network of 17 cameras called the NASA All Sky Fireball Network , aiming to observe meteors in the sky brighter than Venus, which are called fireballs.

Canada’s CMOR (Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar) can detect meteoroids about 0.04 inches (1 millimeter across), and can detect the speed, direction, and location of these small objects. Canada’s Southern Ontario Meteor Network also has cameras that are similar to NASA’s. This and the Fireball Network are the two automatic networks in North America, and they update meteor data taken on the previous night every morning. There are also monitoring networks involving amateur astronomers.

An experiment on the International Space Station called Meteor Composition Determination ( Meteor ) studied the chemical composition of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere. The Meteor investigation took high-resolution video and images of the atmosphere and used a software program to search for bright spots. This experiment also looked at the physical and chemical properties of meteoroid dust.

High-altitude aircraft have also been used to collect meteoritic dust for study. For example, in 2012, NASA's high-flying ER-2 science aircraft sampled cosmic dust during the Perseids meteor shower.

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Find Perseid and Delta Aquariid radiant points

The Delta Aquariid meteor shower has a broad maximum, as opposed to a sharp peak in activity, and produces meteors throughout late July and early August. It overlaps with the more famous Perseid meteor shower, which rises slowly to its peak each year around August 11, 12 and 13. The Perseids take their name from the constellation Perseus the Hero . And the Delta Aquariids take their name from the star Skat, aka Delta Aquarii, in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer . For both showers, if you trace the paths of the meteors backward, you’ll find the meteors’ radiant points. Keep reading to learn more about these sought-after points in the sky. Now here’s the good news. You don’t need to know a shower’s radiant point to enjoy the meteors. But these points in the sky are fun to find!

Find the radiant point for the Perseids

Perseus itself isn’t all that easy to find. But a nearby constellation – Cassiopeia the Queen – is. Look northward for Cassiopeia. It has a very distinctive shape of the letter W or the number 3. See it? Good. Perseus rises later than Cassiopeia on these summer evenings. By the wee hours, you’ll find Perseus below Cassiopeia in the northeastern sky.

As viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, the Perseids’ radiant point sits low in the northeast sky at evening and climbs upward throughout the night. The higher that the radiant is in your sky, the more Perseid meteors you’re likely to see. For the Perseids, the radiant is highest before dawn.

Do you have a dark country sky? Then look for the Double Cluster in Perseus. This dual cluster of stars almost exactly marks the radiant point of the Perseid meteor shower. You can find it by scanning with your binoculars between Perseus and Cassiopeia.

Although the Double Cluster can be seen with the unaided eye, its stars burst into view through binoculars. The clusters are more formally known as NGC 884 (Chi Persei) and NGC 869 (h Persei).

Looking for a dark sky? Check out EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze.

Find the radiant point for the Delta Aquariids

As mentioned above, the Delta Aquariids radiate from the constellation Aquarius, specifically from near its star Skat or Delta Aquarii. Skat isn’t a bright star. It ranks as only the third brightest in the dim constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer . Still, you can glimpse this constellation and this star if you go someplace dark . If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll also need a good view to the south to see Aquarius. From mid-latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the star and constellation are northward and higher in the sky.

Skat appears only modestly bright. But as viewed on the sky’s dome it’s near to a very bright star, Fomalhaut in the constellation Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish .

If you can see the Great Square of Pegasus and Fomalhaut, they can help you find Skat. See the 2nd chart down, below. Also, in 2021, Jupiter is near the Delta Aquariid radiant. See the chart directly below.

Why do meteor showers have a radiant point?

Of course, in actuality, the Delta Aquariid meteors have nothing whatever to do with the star Skat. And the Perseid meteors have nothing to do with the Double Cluster in Perseus. Skat lies about 160 light-years away. The Double Cluster is thought to be over 7,000 light-years away from us, in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way galaxy . Meanwhile, meteors in annual showers start out close to Earth, as bits of debris left behind in space by comets. They encounter Earth’s atmosphere and begin to vaporize some 60 miles (100 km) above our world’s surface.

So why do meteor showers have radiant points? It’s because the meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere on parallel paths. Seeing them come from a radiant point in the sky is much the same illusion as standing on railroad tracks and seeing the tracks converge in the distance.

Bottom line: How to find the radiant points for the Delta Aquariid meteor shower and the Perseid meteor shower. Plus an explanation of why meteors in annual showers have radiant points.

Great Square of Pegasus: Easy to see

Read about all the major meteor showers: EarthSky’s meteor shower guide

Deborah Byrd

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How do we predict meteor shower intensity?

By tracking comets we can anticipate meteor shower intensity.

Alice Gregory

Asked by: Simon Foster, Burnley

Most ‘predictions’ of the rate of meteors per hour during meteor showers are based on both theory and observation. Essentially, a computer model is built containing the trajectories of every known comet – since it is the debris from comets that forms the ‘stream’ of particles we see during a meteor shower.

This model contains information on the rate that these comets release material, along with the sizes, directions and velocities at which they are released, as well as the gravitational forces that determine their subsequent trajectories through space. The trajectory of the Earth and the conditions of the Earth’s atmosphere are also inputted into the computer model.

By watching how Earth moves through the meteor stream it is possible to estimate the likely number of meteors that will be visible during a given shower for a given location. But different astronomers use different models. Plus, these models are partly based on difficult measurements of the meteoric particles in the Solar System, so their predictions are often only approximate. But generally, they can be used to reliably predict when a meteor shower is likely to be more or less intense than the average.

• How often do large meteorites hit the Moon?
• Can you hear a meteor?
• How do spacecraft avoid asteroids and meteoroids?

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How To See A Meteor Shower: Top Tips On Watching Shooting Stars

Observing shooting stars is one of the most fun and easy ways to learn about astronomy. In this article, we’ll give you valuable tips on how to observe a meteor shower successfully. Don't miss out on upcoming meteor showers – enable notifications in our stargazing apps, Star Walk 2 and Sky Tonight , for timely updates.

What is a meteor shower?

List of the best meteor showers, check the weather forecast, find out the peak time, find out when the radiant is high in the sky, be aware of the moon phase, what do you need to watch a meteor shower, how to photograph a meteor shower, are shooting stars real stars, what are the chances of seeing a shooting star, what do shooting stars look like, what does it mean to see a shooting star, how to watch shooting stars: bottom line.

Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by a comet. Tiny particles of cosmic dust enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, producing bright streaks of light in the sky. These streaks of light are called meteors .

Some meteor showers’ parent bodies are not comets but asteroids. For example, the Quadrantids and the Geminids are associated with asteroids 2003 EH1 and 3200 Phaethon, respectively.

By the way, many people can’t tell the difference between a meteor and a meteorite. Take our quiz about the space rocks so as not to mix up meteor and meteorite showers (spoiler: the last one could actually kill you)!

When is the next meteor shower?

If you want to see shooting stars, the first thing you need to do is find out when the next meteor shower begins. To get this information, check the meteor shower calendar in the Sky Tonight app . Click the calendar icon at the bottom of the screen and go to the Meteors tab. You’ll see a meteor shower calendar for the selected month. The meteor showers’ activity periods are marked with colored stripes, and activity peaks are marked with dots. Switch between different months and choose the best night for observations.

You can also consult the meteor shower calendar from the American Meteor Society or International Meteor Organisation .

Here’s a list of the most prominent meteor showers with peak dates for 2024. These showers occur at about the same time every year. Click on the links to explore the details of each of them.

• Quadrantids (January 3-4)
• April Lyrids (April 22-23)
• η-Aquariids (May 5-6)
• Southern δ-Aquariids (July 30-31)
• Perseids (August 12-13)
• Orionids (October 21-22)
• Leonids (November 17-18)
• Geminids (December 14-15)
• Ursids (December 22-23)

When is the best time to watch the meteor shower?

The four main factors that determine the visibility of a meteor shower are cloud coverage , peak time , position of the radiant , and the Moon phase . Here are the four steps you need to take to get a better meteor-watching experience.

Cloudy or rainy skies won’t let you enjoy the meteors. So, keep the weather in mind when choosing the date for your observations.

Knowing the meteor shower’s peak time is essential because you can see the most meteors during the peak. In Sky Tonight ’s meteor shower calendar, the peak dates are marked with dots. The International Meteor Organisation also provides peak dates for upcoming meteor showers.

A meteor shower’s radiant is the point in the sky from which meteors appear to originate. Usually, meteor showers get their names from the constellations where their radiant point is located. For example, the radiant of the Perseid meteor shower is located in the constellation Perseus.

You don’t have to look directly at the radiant to see the meteors – they can appear anywhere across the sky. However, it’s helpful to know the position of the radiant on the sky’s dome because the higher the radiant is, the more meteors you can see .

To determine where the radiant point is in the sky, you can use Star Walk 2 or Sky Tonight . First, tap the magnifier icon, enter the name of a meteor shower in the search field, and tap the corresponding search result. Then, aim your device at the sky and follow the arrow to find the radiant.

Our natural satellite can easily ruin your meteor-watching experience – the more it’s illuminated, the worse the observing conditions. For this reason, it’s better to choose a date for observation when the Moon’s illumination percentage is the lowest.

You can check the Moon phase using Star Walk 2 . Tap the Menu icon in the lower-right corner of the screen and open the Sky Live section. There, you will see the current lunar phase – the number in brackets shows the illumination percentage. Swipe the picture of the Moon to the right to view the Moon phases for any date in the future.

Sky Tonight also provides a convenient lunar phase calendar. Tap the calendar icon at the bottom of the screen and switch to the Moon tab to find the lunar phases for every day of the selected month.

Our website also has an interactive lunar calendar . You can scroll through the phases, find out the moonrise and moonset times for your location, and learn more about our natural satellite.

You don’t need any special equipment, like a telescope or binoculars, to enjoy “shooting stars”. However, there are a few things you should take with you.

• Bring your mobile device with an app for viewing the night sky installed. As we’ve mentioned earlier, such an app will help you determine where the radiant is in the sky. Don’t forget to turn on the “Night mode” in the settings so your eyes can stay adjusted to the dark.
• Put some warm clothes on. It may take some time until you see the meteors, so you might get cold while waiting.
• Bring along a thermos with hot tea or coffee . Some sandwiches will also be a plus.
• Grab a blanket to lie on or a reclining chair to sit in.
• Pack a red-filtered flashlight . It will help you orient yourself in the dark while preserving your night vision.
• Bring your friends with you. First, it’s more fun to observe a meteor shower together! Second, you can keep your eyes on different parts of the sky and let each other know when a meteor appears.

Photographing meteor showers takes some skill and a sheer amount of luck because you never know when a meteor is going to appear. But the resulting images of “shooting stars” can be truly stunning! Here are some quick tips on how to photograph meteors.

• Use a tripod – it’s an absolute must-have for a sharp and clear picture.
• Use a wide-angle lens . Such a lens will capture a wider area of the sky than a regular one, thus giving you a better chance to catch a meteor.
• Manually focus your lens . Turn the autofocus off, zoom in on a bright star or planet, and adjust the focus manually. You can also focus on infinity if your camera lens is capable of doing so.
• Aim your camera at the shower’s radiant – this can also up your chances of capturing a “shooting star”.
• Use an aperture of 2.8 or lower – you’ll need to let in as much light as you can.
• Set your exposure to 15-30 seconds . You can experiment with different exposure times to get different-looking results. The longer the exposure, the longer the trails created by the movement of celestial bodies.
• Set your ISO to 1600 or higher . Raise the ISO as high as you can before the picture becomes too grainy.

Meteor showers are an excellent starting point in your astrophotography journey. You’ll find a few more tips on the topic in the article by Jamie Carter .

A shooting star is actually a meteor – a bright streak of light caused by cosmic dust particles entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. So rest assured, real stars don't fall from the sky.

Depending on the month, time of day, and location, you may see a different number of shooting stars. There are also sporadic meteors, which are unpredictable. And sometimes there are meteor storms , during which you can see 1,000 meteors per hour or even more! So we can say that with the right timing and preparation, your chances are high!

Shooting stars, or meteors, appear as bright streaks of light across the sky. They are typically white or blue but can vary in color. Check out our infographic to see what meteors look like and how to avoid confusing them with other objects in the sky.

Seeing a shooting star, in fact, simply means that you’ve witnessed a cosmic dust particle burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. For many, however, it’s considered a special and magical moment. Some cultures believe that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it will come true. Whether you believe that or not, seeing a streak of a meteor in the sky is certainly an amazing experience.

Are you ready for meteor hunting now? Test your skills with our fun quiz about shooting stars!

Meteor showers don't require fancy equipment to view, so they're great for any stargazer. There are several major meteor showers and many more smaller ones that occur each year. You can find all the tips for viewing meteors in visual form in our infographic . Also, make your meteor hunt easier with the Sky Tonight and Star Walk 2 apps. If you liked the article, please share it with your friends on social media . We wish you clear skies and happy observations!

Hoping to catch a view of the Orionid meteor shower this weekend? Here are the five things you need to know from the astronomy team at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory :

What is a meteor?

When meteoroids (pieces of rock and dust from space) fall through Earth’s atmosphere and glow brightly, we call them meteors—though some say they look like “shooting stars.” Meteors fall very fast through the air, and the friction created between the meteor and the air particles causes them to heat up and glow. A meteor shower occurs when a larger amount of meteors than normal seem to be “shooting” from the same spot in the sky.

An image of the radiant of the Orionid meteor shower. The bright star near the radiant point is Betelgeus. Courtesy of EarthSky .

What is the Orionid meteor shower?

The Orionid meteor shower, which generally occurs between October 2 and November 7 each year, emanates from a spot near the constellation Orion to the east of the bright star Betelgeuse. Even though meteors fall to Earth every day, this particular meteor shower happens as Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet.

What should you watch for?

Even though “shower” sounds like a lot, it’s more like a “sprinkling,” with up to 25 meteors falling per hour. Bring a blanket or a chair and get comfortable.

Where should you watch the Orionids?

The best place would be somewhere dark, away from street or city lights, where you can see as much of the sky as possible. If you can’t make it away from the city, a park or a rooftop with a view of the wide open sky could do the trick.

When should you watch?

The Orionids will peak on October 21 and 22. The best time to see this meteor shower is in the early morning hours before dawn—look straight up for the best view, but you may catch stray meteors in other parts of the sky!

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Meteor showers, explained

Find out what causes shooting stars and how famous showers get their names.

When you wish upon a falling star, you're actually offering your hopes and dreams to a small piece of space rock burning up as it plummets through Earth's atmosphere. Known as meteors, these brilliant streaks of light have entranced humans for centuries, especially when they arrive in bursts of blazing glory during sky shows called meteor showers .

Scientists have known since the mid-1800s that almost all meteor showers are born from icy comets. When one of these visitors from deep space enters the inner part of the solar system, heat from the sun causes ices on the comet's surface to change from ice to gas, a process called sublimation. This is what produces a comet's beautiful tail .

As the ices vaporize, the comet releases dust, sand grain-size particles, and even a few boulder-sized chunks of stone that get left behind in its wake. With each orbit, that process creates a stream of debris along the comet's path that persists long after the dirty iceball has headed back out to the edges of the solar system.

In some cases, Earth crosses through the debris streams during its trip around the sun. As the planet plows through the cometary leftovers, rocky bits slam into our atmosphere and burn up, creating a spectacular display in the night sky. And we are not alone; meteor showers also happen on Mars, although the red planet sees different displays based on the cometary paths it crosses.

Outbursts and fireballs

A few meteors may fall on any given night, but the best time to watch for them is during the peak of an annual meteor shower. This is when Earth crosses through a particularly dense part of a comet's debris stream, an event that happens at predictable times each year.

Seen from Earth's surface, the meteors in annual showers appear to radiate from particular points in the night sky. Most showers are therefore named after the constellation from which they seem to fall. For instance, the prolific Perseid meteor shower that happens every August is named for its origin in the area of the constellation Perseus, the mythical hero.

Each major meteor shower has different peak rates at which its shooting stars fall. Some, like the Lyrids in April , see rates of about 15 to 20 meteors an hour. Others, like the Geminids in December , deliver as many as 60 to 70 meteors an hour.

But comet debris streams are not entirely uniform, and some normally weak showers are known for producing occasional outbursts of up to a thousand meteors an hour, while others will punctuate the sky show with bright fireballs. The different annual showers also see meteors fall at different speeds, which can affect how long the streaks last in the sky.

Unfortunately, astronomers can't predict when a given meteor shower will produce especially dazzling displays with much accuracy. And some of the major meteor showers are best seen from either the Southern or Northern hemisphere, depending on their associated constellation. To offer a more controlled experience, one company in Japan has proposed a way to create artificial meteor showers using satellites and specially designed “meteors” made of chemical-filled pellets.

The best way to experience a natural meteor shower is to head into darker rural areas, away from light pollution , and wait for the shower's radiant constellation to rise high in the sky. Allow your eyes to adjust to the dark, and then watch out for the ephemeral bursts of light.

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Could we experience the first-ever human-made meteor shower?

Come 2034, humans could witness the first-ever artificial meteor shower sparked by activity in space.

That’s according to a new simulation led by Eloy Peña-Asensio of Italy’s Polytechnic University of Milan, who modeled the trajectories of 3 million particles of rocky debris blasted into space after NASA’s DART spacecraft intentionally slammed into the diminutive asteroid Dimorphos in 2022. 

DART’s crash, which can be likened to a vending machine hitting a football stadium, altered the asteroid’s shape and sent more than 2 million pounds (a million kilograms) of rocks and dust flying into space, thanks to little resistance put forth by Dimorphos’ rubble-pile nature. The ultimate destination of all that debris has been uncertain — until now.

Using data collected by the Italian LICIACube micro-satellite that hitched a ride on DART and recorded the collision and its aftermath , Peña-Asensio and his colleagues have now modeled the ejecta’s journey. The researchers grouped the debris into three categories based on their sizes — 4 inches, 0.2 inch, and 0.0012 inch (10 cm, 0.5 cm and 30 micrometers) — and speeds of 2.2 mph up to 4,500 mph (1 meter per second up to 2 kilometers per second).

The researchers estimate some of the high-velocity material will waft in the vicinity of Mars within seven years and create an observable meteor shower. This sprinkle of debris, dubbed the Dimorphids, will result from particles that were launched at speeds of 1,700 mph (770 meters per second), while the slower ones would arrive at the Red Planet a couple years later, according to a new paper by the researchers that has been accepted for publication in The Planetary Science Journal .

A few grams of ultrafast-moving debris particles may also reach Earth in about seven years, but only tiny fragments that were blasted from Dimorphos’ surface at speeds exceeding 3,300 mph (1.5 kilometers per second) have a chance to reach our planet, Peña-Asensio says.

“We were amazed to discover that it is possible for some centimeter-sized particles to reach the Earth-Moon system and produce a new meteor shower,” study co-author Josep Trigo-Rodríguez of the Spanish Institute of Space Sciences said in a recent news release . “If this happens, we will witness the first human-made meteor shower,” Peña-Asensio added.

The new simulation predicts that debris making its way to Earth will produce luminous streaks possibly visible to the naked eye, predominantly in the Southern Hemisphere. “The potential meteors created by DART would be slow-moving . . .  and most likely to occur in May,” study co-author Michael Kueppers of the European Space Agency (ESA) said in the statement.

Peña-Asensio says the debris, the largest pieces of which would be the size of a softball, will not pose any meaningful risk to our planet as it will vaporize in the upper atmosphere long before reaching Earth’s surface. 

Any incoming debris wouldn’t be of any real threat to satellites orbiting Earth either, experts say. “It’s something you might be able to detect if you really tried, but not something to worry about,” says Jonathan C. McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts.

An internal analysis by the DART mission team concurs, showing there is “no significant debris hazard” to near-Earth orbit, Tom Statler, the program scientist for DART at NASA, told The New York Times .

The fact that the LICIACube probe and various ground-based telescopes were able to watch particles the size of a sand grain blast from Dimorphos’ surface is a testament to the modern technology. Of course, the debris particles wafted far away from the asteroid soon after DART’s impact, and have long drifted out of sight of telescopes. 

“They are just diluted in the darkness of space,” says Peña-Asensio. “It is impossible to observe them anymore.”

The next opportunity to glimpse the debris is only when it enters the atmospheres of Mars or Earth and produces observable meteors. And while the prospect of gazing at a human-made meteor shower is fascinating in its own right, astronomers are also keen to utilize the rare opportunity to collect scientific data. Such observational data could help them confirm and fine-tune simulations of the ejecta’s dynamics and motion, which could then inform future planetary defense techniques, says Peña-Asensio.

Meanwhile Dimorphos and its bigger companion Didymos are scheduled for a robotic visit at the end of 2026 by ESA’s Hera mission. The spacecraft is designed to study how Dimorphos looks post-impact, including its composition, permanently-altered structure, and wobbling profile.

“Everything that we got a good view of from DART either got ejected or pushed aside,” Statler previously told Astronomy . “We may be looking at what for all intents and purposes is a brand-new asteroid to our view.”

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to ensure the correct form of study author Eloy Peña-Asensio’s name.

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Meteor Showers: Shooting for Shooting Stars

Meteor showers – one of the many benefits to living on a planet with an atmosphere.

Which begs the question -- if spotting shooting stars is so tough, what is a person with both good visual acuity and a passion for celestial light displays to do?

A meteor shower is the entertaining end game of a comet's passage into the inner solar system. Each time one of these big blobs of ice and dust ventures into the relatively toasty confines of the inner solar system (called a perihelion passage), the sun's rays cook off part of its frozen surface, releasing particles of dust. Each swing through the inner solar system by a comet can leave trillions of small particles in its wake. If Earth's orbit intersects with this trail of debris, the result is a meteor shower. "The comet trails that result in meteor showers can be from comet flybys that occurred hundreds of years ago," said Yeomans. "Remarkably, we can pin down the cosmic perpetrators. For example, we know from the similarity of their orbits that the Geminid showers that occur each December result from the debris of a dead comet called 3200 Phaethon. " Along with the source of the Geminids, astronomers know that comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher supplied the particles for April's Lyrids; famous comet Halley is responsible for both May's Eta Aquarids and October's Orionids; 55P/Tempel-Tuttle funded November's Leonids; and 109P/Swift-Tuttle is the origin of the most celebrated shower of them all – August's Perseids. By now, you may have noticed that the names of all the showers listed are associated with that of a constellation. Meteor shower particles travel through space at the same relative velocity and in parallel paths. When they are sucked in by Earth's gravity and light up in our atmosphere, a viewer on the ground would note they appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. A shower's name is usually associated with the nearest constellation in the sky to that single point at the time of shower maximum. "Usually, the first couple of nights of a meteor shower have light activity," said Yeomans. "Then, the number of meteors can increase dramatically as Earth approaches the densest portion of the stream. After peaking for anywhere from a few hours to a few nights, it decreases back down to a level where you couldn't distinguish it from a normal night's meteor activity. "The end of the line for a particle from space can be a great opportunity for scientists to study the nature of comets," said Yeomans. "But it is more than that. It is a great reminder that what we live on is essentially a big spacecraft traveling through the solar system and interacting with many of its parts. And as free entertainment, you can't beat it."

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