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It sounds crazy when you say it out loud. Meteors are rocks from SPACE burning up in the atmosphere. How did people ever figure THAT out? Today, I’m talking about the history of meteor showers and discussing the fascinating journey of how people finally figured out what meteors were. From those initial moments of terror of ancient cultures when they saw stars rain down from the sky like snow to the advent of the camera – what did people think meteors were throughout history? And how did they finally figure out that they were from space? I’ll also talk about the history-changing meteor shower of 1833 – during which 200,000 meteors fell during the course of the 9 hour storm. That got everyone’s attention – from Joseph Smith to Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Tubman.
I did a lot of fascinating research on the history of meteor showers to put this episode together, so check out the references if you want to learn more!
Patrons of the podcast can also check out the beautiful gallery of meteors as well as learn about the next meteor shower coming up.
References
The Early Years of Meteor Observations in the USA
The Origin and Evolution of Meteor Showers and Meteoroid Streams
How Ancient Cultures Explained Comets and Meteors
The Curious History of the Lyrid Meteor Shower
The First Meteor Shower on Record
The Greatest Meteor Show of All Time
Meteor Showers and Shooting Stars: Formation, Facts, and Discovery
Some of the background music you heard were clips from Ethereal Space by snowflake, Between Worlds by Aussens@iter, Nanyang Journey By Ivan Chew, B34 by zikweb, and Dark Woods II by Ivan Chew (all licensed under CC by 3.0.).