Earth & Sky

How high up are meteors?

At what altitude do meteors become incandescent?

Meteors are dust particles from space. They become incandescent – or glow – almost as soon as they hit Earth’s atmosphere. But there are some differences in meteors’ height at incandescence, due to the difference in speeds between various meteors.

Some meteors such as the Perseids in August burn up in the atmosphere at about 60 miles above Earth’s surface. Other meteors such as the Draconids in October fall to about 40 miles above Earth’s surface before they heat up enough to glow and vaporize. The difference is that the Draconids are much slower meteors than the Perseids.

There are a dozen major meteor showers every year and many more minor ones.

Here are some meteor arrival speeds. The faster meteors become incandescent higher up in the atmosphere.

Leonids: 44 miles per second
Perseids: 38 miles per second
Orionids: 42 miles per second
Lyrids: 30 miles per second
Draconids: 14 miles per second

The length of a meteor’s path across the sky depends mostly on the angle at which the particle of dust slices through the atmosphere. If the particle arrives at a low angle, it enters the atmosphere more gradually, heats up more slowly, and cuts a longer swath across the sky than if it barrels in at a steep angle. The size, composition, and density of the dust particle probably also affect the length of the path – but scientists still aren’t sure exactly how.

2 Comments for How high up are meteors?

1. 1

   Nov 13, 04:55 PM #

   sglasson says:

   Interesting, these meteors are a lot closer to earth than I imagined. It’s a common myth that “shooting stars” are stars that burn out, which gives people the idea that “shooting stars” are far from Earth. We have some other articles that disprove this, and show that “shooting stars” are actually meteors. Find out more about shooting stars.

2. 2

   Nov 15, 07:36 PM #

   Steven Earl Salmony says:

   Thanks.

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