This is a scientific Americans 60 second science.

I'm Steve Mursky.

Got a minute?

What if they held a meteor storm and no meteors came?

That's what many people are asking after the well-hiked May Camilo-partilids meteor outbursts turned out to be a dud.

Most meteors arise from mere dust grains and pebbles in space.

When Earth passes through a stream of this debris

shed by a comet, the particles burn up in our atmosphere and we see a meteor

shower. Some astronomers had predicted that on the night of May 23rd

particles from a comet called Linear

would bring many meteors to the night sky. North America had the best seats

for the event. And so a lot of people watched and waited, but no one saw much.

Meteor showers are common and the best and waited, but no one saw much.

Meteor showers are common, and the best produce about 100 meteors per hour,

but meteor storms, which can send out thousands of meteors per hour,

are rare and notoriously unreliable.

Not only can predicted storms go bust, but great storms can erupt without warning.

In November 1966, the normally weak Leonids surprised everyone and roared back to life

producing more than 100,000 shooting stars in a single hour. You can still count

on astronomers to tell you exactly when the next eclipse will be.

But if they ever promise you a meteor storm,

you should take it with a grain of, well, meteor dust.

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