I decided to look up the astronomy picture of the day for my birthday this past year, and it turned out to be an impressive snapshot of the Leonid meteor shower. Supposedly the sight of the shower was somewhat diminished this year because of bright shining moonlight, but looking at the picture, I wouldn’t have thought it. The picture, titled “Leonid Fireball over Tenerife, depicts a massive bright meteor with a long, fiery tail. I learned under the explanation that Leonid meteors originate from particles of dust being swept up when the Earth passes near the orbit of periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle. What really amazed me is that these meteors typically enter the atmosphere at nearly 70 kilometers per second. It is hard for me to imagine an object moving that quickly. I actually did not know how meteor showers come into existence, so it was nice learning experience for me. Hopefully sometime in my life I will get to see this shower on my birthday.
Leonid Meteor Shower
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davidastronomy 
Dave, I think this is a cool blog post. I am in the same boat as you where I have never seen a meteor shower before and haven’t really seen a clear image of a comet. Therefore, seeing your post and drawing attention to objects that move in space (specifically meteors) was really cool. How could anything that large move at 70 kilometers per second, that is absurd. In an era of technology where we think Ferrari’s move fast, it is clear that we have no real grasp of speed. In addition, I had no idea that meteors were dust.