Meteor

< Meteor
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This article is about the astronomical object. You may be looking for the escort freighter, the Havoc Squad trooper, or meteorites.
Shooting star redirects here.
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"Thousands of meteor impacts an hour, ranging from microscopic to colossal. Perpetual bombardment. Each steps on its surface may be your last."
―Lucien Draay describing the Rogue moon to a group of Jedi Padawans[1]
A meteor shower on a jungle world in the Kamdon system

A meteor shower on a jungle world in the Kamdon system

A meteor, also known as a shooting star,[2] was a form of object that entered a planet's atmosphere from space.[3] The Rogue Moon in the Taris system sat in the middle of an asteroid field, but had a retrograde orbit, traveling in the opposite direction of surrounding asteroids. As a result, it was bombarded heavily by meteors.[1]

A jungle world in the Kamdon system experienced seasonal meteor showers where meteors would enter the planet's atmosphere and tear through its surface, destroying untold acres of foliage, but also brought nutrients that the jungle needed to grow.[4]

The barren moon of Rishi was known to have meteor showers rain down onto the surface.[3] The logo of the Meteor Cafe featured a burning meteor and the name of the eatery in Aurebesh.[5] The planet Hoth had a lot of meteors; when the Rebel Alliance established a new secret base on the ice planet, all the meteor activity made it difficult to spot approaching starships.[6]

A common espionage tactic involved concealing starships within a mass of meteors. In 8 ABY, the crew of Mon Remonda diverted a series of asteroids to create a meteor shower over Saffalore which provided cover for Wraith Squadron's subsequent raid. When Elassar Targon was left on the roof of the Binring Biomedical Product facility with fellow squadron member Lara Notsil, he spotted a shooting star and pointed out that seeing one meant good luck. However, Notsil was unsure if it was still considered good luck if the meteor was one of the asteroids that the squadron had just shot into the atmosphere.[2]

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Behind the scenes

Meteors, meteorites and meteoroids

In real life, the term meteor refers to the streak of light that appears in the sky when a meteoroid[7] (a lump of rock or iron that orbit around the sun)[8] enters Earth's (or another planet's) atmosphere but burns up before it reaches the ground, which is why they're also called "shooting stars." A meteorite, on the other hand, is a meteoroid that enters the planet's atmosphere and survives the trip and hits the ground.[9] However, the terms meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite are sometimes used interchangeably in daily conversation.[10]

Meteoroids and asteroids

Meteoroids range in size from tiny dust grains[9] to about 330 feet (100 meters); space debris any bigger than this is considered an asteroid.[11]

Most meteoroids are fragments of asteroids and comets (although a few are known to come from other planets and moons),[10] explaining the high level of meteor activity on Hoth in the film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back; the Hoth system is known to have a dangerous asteroid field[6] and most meteoroids are created from colliding asteroids.[8]

Linguistic confusion

The space rocks from the meteor shower in "Rookies" strike the surface, meaning that they're technically meteorites

The space rocks from the meteor shower in "Rookies" strike the surface, meaning that they're technically meteorites

People sometimes confuse meteoroid, meteor and meteorite since they are all used interchangeably in everyday language. The word "meteor" in particular is commonly used for a meteoroid flying through outer space, for a glowing meteoroid in the atmosphere (rather than just the burning streak of light in the sky), or for an object that has already landed on Earth (one example is found in the name Meteor Crater, a famous impact-structure in Arizona) or even a human-made object.[10]

This linguistic confusion has also spilled into Star Wars titles: For example, the meteors that enter the jungle world's atmosphere in the comic issue Star Wars (1998) 30 hit the planet's surface,[4] meaning that is technically a meteorite shower rather than a meteor shower.[12] In Knights of the Old Republic 4, the space rocks that constantly bombard the surface of Rogue moon are referred to as meteors, but since they hit the surface rather than burn up,[1] they are technically meteorites, not meteors.[9] The space rocks from the so-called meteor shower in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Rookies" strike the surface of the Rishi moon,[3] meaning that they're technically meteorites.[9]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Knights of the Old Republic 4
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 X-Wing: Solo Command
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Rookies"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Star Wars (1998) 30
  5. ↑ StarWars.com "Friends and Enemies" Trivia Gallery on StarWars.com (backup link) (Slide 11)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
  7. ↑ Premium-Era-real What's the Difference Between a Meteoroid, a Meteor, and a Meteorite? by Gregersen, Erik on Encyclopædia Britannica: "A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the sky when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of the frictional heating from the piece's collision with the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere, it floats through interplanetary space and is called a meteoroid." (backup link archived on May 23, 2023)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Premium-Era-real Meteoroid on National Geographic: "Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun, just as planets, asteroids, and comets do. (...) Most meteoroids are created from asteroid impacts. As asteroids crash and break up, their debris is classified as meteoroids." (backup link archived on May 19, 2023)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Premium-Era-real What's the difference between a meteor, meteoroid, and meteorite? on NASA: "Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as "space rocks." When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or "shooting stars" are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's called a meteorite." (backup link archived on April 23, 2023)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Premium-Era-real meteor and meteoroid on Encyclopædia Britannica: "Meteoroids are believed to be mostly fragments of asteroids and comets and are placed, with them, in the category of solar system objects known as small bodies. A few meteoroids also have come from the Moon, Mars, Vesta, and possibly Mercury. The smallest meteoroids, those less than a few hundred micrometres across (about the size of a period on a printed page), are called interplanetary dust particles or micrometeoroids. The terms meteoroid and meteor (and meteorite as well) are sometimes confusingly interchanged in common usage. Meteor in particular is often applied to a meteoroid hurtling through space, to an incandescent meteoroid (rather than just its luminous streak) in the atmosphere, or to an object that has hit the ground or a human-made object. An example of the last case is found in the name Meteor Crater, a well-known impact structure in Arizona, U.S." (backup link archived on March 7, 2023)
  11. ↑ Premium-Era-real How big does a meteor have to be to make it to the ground? on HowStuffWorks: "Meteoroids have a pretty big size range. They include any space debris bigger than a molecule and smaller than about 330 feet (100 meters) -- space debris bigger than this is considered an asteroid." (backup link archived on March 25, 2023)
  12. ↑ Premium-Era-real meteorite shower on Encyclopædia Britannica: "meteorite shower, swarm of separate but related meteorites that land on Earth's surface at about the same time and place." (backup link archived on February 20, 2023)