What is a Meteor Shower??

METEOR SHOWER

                 A meteor is a space rock—or meteoroid—that enters Earth's atmosphere. As the space rock falls toward Earth, the resistance—or drag—of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot. What we see is a "shooting star." That bright streak is not actually the rock, but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere.
When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it a meteor shower.
Why would Earth encounter many meteoroids at once? Well, comets, like Earth and the other planets, also orbit the Sun. Unlike the nearly circular orbits of the planets, the orbits of comets are usually quite lop-sided. As a comet gets closer to the Sun, some of its icy surface boils off, releasing lots of particles of dust and rock. This comet debris gets strewn out along the comet's path, especially in the inner solar system (where we live) as the Sun's heat boils off more and more ice and debris. Then, several times each year as Earth makes its journey around the Sun, its orbit crosses the orbit of a comet, which means Earth smacks into a bunch of comet debris.