Look Up: June 30th is Meteor Day
By ALYSIA GRAY PAINTER
Updated 10:07 AM PST, Tue, Jun 30, 2009
Just about every single day -- scratch that -- make that *every* day, there is something to celebrate and/or think about and/or ponder and/or all of the above. We like it when it is a food-related day, of course, but Meteor Day, which happens to fall on June 30th each year, suits us fine, too.
That's because, well, meteors. At any time, at any place, if you're on the planet, and we're guessing you are, a chunk of dust that's just been tooling around the Milky Way might zoom through the atmosphere, through various cloudage and plunk down -- hard -- in some field, hopefully missing various roofs and cars and humanmade things it can damage (not to mention humans as well).
We should mention here that the true definition of a meteor is the luminescent (and long) smear of light that follows a meteroid as it zooms through the sky. Interesting.
Still, a mystery, a wonder, the meteor. Fans of the heavens, of stars, of floating cosmo-type debris can mark Meteor Day with a visit to the Natural History Museum's impressive collection of meteorites. Yes, you're looking at rocks, but they're rocks from space. They've been where you'll never go (probably). And for that, we hail them.
If you'd like to see a meteor in action, you just have to look up, somewhere dark preferably, and wait. And wait. And wait. And be looking in the right spot and the right time. Good luck!
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jun 30, 2009 8:49 AM PST
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