The Bedtime Scientist

A question

What is a shooting star?

A calm, true answer. Then, if the wondering keeps going, the whole episode.

The short answer

Not a star at all. It is usually a grain of dust or rock, most of them smaller than a pea, striking the top of our atmosphere at enormous speed.

The streak is not really the grain burning. It is the air itself glowing, squeezed and heated as the speck shoves through it, dozens of miles above your roof. On a clear dark night, patient eyes catch several an hour.

Go deeper tonight

Shooting Stars: Wishes on Ancient Dust

The full episode, in one calm voice, with nothing that startles.

The episode

Shooting Stars: Wishes on Ancient Dust

0:00 14:55
Sleep timer

Read the guide for this one in the morning.

This connects to

Gravity Light

One idea turns up in many different nights. Follow one and the library starts to join up.