FYI: Do Meteor Showers Ever Run Out of Meteors?
Meteor Madness Adastra/Getty ImagesYes, but it takes a long, long time. Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a field of cosmic debris. As that debris crosses into the Earth's atmosphere, each piece burns up, sometimes creating the blazing streaks of light we call shooting stars. These chunks of rock or ice are gone for good, so it's true that a meteor shower loses some of its material, or fuel, with every flurry. But there are ways for a shower to be replenished, says David Meisel, executive director of the American Meteor Society. The Geminids, which appear every December, are fragments from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. When 3200 Phaethon swings past the sun, it heats up and pieces break off, littering its orbit with fuel for shooting stars. Given that the asteroid is about three miles in diameter, it will take a long, long time-"millions of years," says...