Meteor shower

It was saturday, 20th oct, which is also my mother's birthday. It was an impromptu decision to go east coast to try out our look for meteor shower (source from my brother earlier).
And lucky enough, we stayed there 12.30am to 2am, i saw a total 5 while JunQiang 4 meteors, whereby 2 of it come it pairs! But total we made 2 wishes, the rest of the chances were gone from either we're too shocked to react, too excited or too busy pointing out to each other where the meteor is.... (hahaha..)

My wish is: me and junqiang will be in good health.
JunQiang's wish: our son and daughter will be in good health.


What's a meteor shower?
A meteor basically composed of small particles of comets that break off as the comet travels through space and nears the sun. When these comet fragments enter the heavier atmosphere of Earth, they burn up because of friction and can glow for several seconds, lighting up the night sky. Many people call these celestial fireworks "shooting stars," but they really don't have anything to do with stars at all.
A meteor is simply the name for a meteoroid — a piece of space rock or comet fragment — as it hits the Earth's atmosphere and burns up. It is usually pretty small. If a part of the meteor survives the trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's a meteorite. But that is a rare occurrence.

Why are they so bright?
The intense light of a meteor breaking up is created when a dust particle hits air molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. The impact vaporizes the outer layers of the meteor, leaving a trail of iron, magnesium and sodium. When this trail of molecules makes subsequent impact with air molecules, the electrons are "bashed" out of their regular orbit with their corresponding nuclei, creating light in the process.
The colour of light produced depends upon the composition of the meteorite. Iron particles produce yellow light; sodium particles produce orange-yellow light; magnesium produces a blue-green light and silicon atoms produce red light.

Link: www.cbc.ca/news/background/meteors/