Ah, tonight and tomorrow night are the peak nights of the persied meteor shower. I'll be camping out tonight and be watching meteors after midnight.
Anyways, I thought of FE. I searched and found some topics on the subject of meteor showers, but no FE explanation. So, I thought to give it another shot. FE, explain the following two points.
1) Why do certain meteor showers, like the persieds, occur 365 days apart all the time?
2) Why is the meteor/hour rate greatest from midnight to dawn?
In RE, the answers are trivial:
A comet leaves dust behind it, so there is a constant dust stream in the same location that the earth moves through:
1) Since this dust stream is from a comet path which is constant, the earth will pass through it once a year (365 days).
2) Since dawn is always at the "front" of the earth, in terms of the earth's movement around the sun, the meteors are most visible after midnight and the shower is best right before dawn while it is dark enough to still see the meteors.
So, FE, what's up with the annual meteor showers?
More info at:
http://www.imo.net/zhr