The small particles which become meteors typically range from the size of a grain of sand up to the size of a pea. When heated to incandescence by friction with air in our atmosphere, they burn up completely at heights of about 80 km - 130 km. The trail of glowing, electrically-charged gases that surrounds and streams away from the meteoroid is called a meteor. These brief, bright streaks of light are sometimes called 'shooting stars'. Meteors tend to arrive in 'showers' of many individual meteors at definite times throughout the year. They are given the name of the constellation which forms their backdrop (e.g. the Leonids from Leo, November 14 - 17). These constellations are much further away than the showers themselves.
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