9th of March 2023
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Dear Reader,
Last night, I was with my friend Saysay, walking along the dark street, actually making our way out of it because that certain street does not have any lamp posts. It was serene until she shouted. She said she saw a “falling star.” She kept bugging me until I had to say I believed in her. She was in such a moment of astonishment. If I could see her eyes, I bet it was twinkling.
Well, she just shouted for the whole neighborhood to hear. She gasped in beholding its beauty. She said she was late in realizing it was indeed a “falling star.” I genuinely like her reaction. So much innocence in her voice and pure amazement. It must have been beautiful to have seen one falling from the sky.
I could not tell her what it was called in astronomy because she was filled with amazement then, and I didn’t want to ruin that. It was precious. So, I am telling you now how these shiny objects from the night sky are. They are meteors. There are three words you have to know. Meteoroid, Meteor, and Meteorite.
NASA calls them “space rocks.” So, once meteoroids make their way to the Earth’s atmosphere, and when they are at a pretty high speed, there shall be burning up. Thus we can see below that they are shiny. They look closely like a fireball, but below here, we can say, “Oh, shooting star!”. These are not stars. Now, these are what we call meteors. Another thing is when this meteoroid (by that time is already a meteor) survives its journey throughout the atmosphere, eventually, when it finally hits the ground, that is now the meteorite.
What Saysay saw last night was a meteor, indeed. Our Earth is visited annually by approximately 61,000 meteors— big enough to reach the ground. Research has revealed we can see 17 meteors every day. Most of them are gone unnoticed, for they are in places where no people are around, but some areas can get their attention. The area last night was a good spot for meteor gazing. I think.
I love how last night was pure, and it reminds me how surprising the world can become when we least expect it to be.
Have a restful night.
Grace be upon you.
Sincerely,
Kryz.