VIDEO: Meteor caught on film shooting over Peterborough
A number of readers got in touch with the Peterborough Telegraph after shooting stars were seen in the night sky over the city yesterday.
And Alan Moore managed to capture one of the meteors falling through the atmosphere on his dashcam as he drove along the A47 from Thorney to Peterborough on Wednesday November 29 at just after 5pm.
When they hit the atmosphere, meteors rub against air particles and create friction, heating the meteors. The heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars.
Meteor showers occur when the Earth plows into the trail of particles left behind by a comet or asteroid.
The next meteor shower visible over England the Geminid meteor shower which can be observed between December 4 and December 16, with its peak activity being around December 14.
Unlike most other meteor showers, the Geminids are associated not with a comet but with an asteroid: the 3200 Phaethon. The asteroid takes about 1.4 years to orbit around the Sun.
The Geminids are considered to be one of the more spectacular meteor shower during a year, with the possibility of sighting around 120 meteors per hour at its peak.