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50 free Meteor Showers trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This meteor showers trivia quiz covers the annual sky shows and the science behind them. The easy questions handle the basics: what a meteor shower actually is, why showers are named after constellations, which comet feeds the Perseids, and which two showers Halley's Comet leaves behind every year. From there it moves into the calendar of major showers, from the January Quadrantids to the December Geminids and Ursids. The harder end is for amateur astronomers: the great Leonid storm of 1833 and who explained it, the Italian astronomer who first tied a shower to a comet, the asteroid that spawns the Geminids, why the Quadrantids are named after a constellation that no longer exists, the fastest and slowest showers, what zenithal hourly rate really measures, and the comet once feared to be on a collision course with Earth in 2126. There are also questions on the Taurid 'Halloween fireballs', the Draconid storms, the vanished Andromedids and the folklore of the 'tears of Saint Lawrence'. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for meteor showers, individual showers and their parent bodies before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our astronomy, comets and solar system quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What are the particles of cosmic debris that cause meteor showers called?
Meteoroids
Most are smaller than a grain of sand and burn up completely, never reaching the ground.
Q 02Meteor showers are normally named after what?
The constellation of their radiant
The Latin possessive ending is swapped for '-id' or '-ids', so meteors from near Delta Aquarii become the Delta Aquariids.
Q 03The point in the sky from which a shower's meteors appear to fan out is called what?
The radiant
It is a trick of perspective, like parallel railway tracks converging at a vanishing point on the horizon.
Q 04A very intense shower producing at least 1,000 meteors an hour is called what?
A meteor storm
The Leonids are the most notorious source of them, with some events topping 100,000 meteors an hour.
Q 05The first great meteor storm of the modern era occurred in November of which year?
1833
One estimate put the peak at over 100,000 meteors an hour across North America east of the Rockies; Abraham Lincoln remarked on it years later.
Q 06Which American scientist correctly explained the great Leonid storm as particles in space radiating from Leo?
Denison Olmsted
He noted the shower was short, was not seen in Europe, and presented his findings to the American Journal of Science in 1834.
Q 07Which Italian astronomer showed in 1866 that the Leonids shared an orbit with a comet?
Giovanni Schiaparelli
He set out the connection in a series of letters to Angelo Secchi late that year.
Q 08Which German scientist proposed in 1794 that meteors came from outer space?
Ernst Chladni
Humboldt was among the initial doubters, since Newton had said space must be empty for planets to keep orbiting.
Q 09Who proposed in 1951 that comets are 'dirty snowballs' shedding debris as their ices vaporise?
Fred Whipple
Comets shed debris each time they swing past the Sun, spreading a dust trail along the whole orbit.
Q 10The Lyrids are the oldest recorded meteor shower, with records from which country back to 687 BCE?
China
Its parent, Comet Thatcher, has an orbital period of about 415 years, and it peaks around April 22.
Q 11Why do most meteor showers look better after midnight?
Observers face into Earth's orbital motion
The best compromise is usually shortly before dawn, before the brightening sky hides the fainter meteors.
Q 12At what typical altitude range above Earth do shower meteors ionise and glow?
70 to 110 km
A typical shower meteor is only about 5 micrometres across and starts melting at around 1800 K.
Q 13What does a shower's zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) describe?
Meteors per hour with the radiant overhead in perfect skies
Q 21The 1966 Leonid storm over the Americas peaked at roughly how many meteors per hour?
144,000
That works out to more than 40 meteors every second at the height of the display.
Q 22Which religious founder wrote that the great 1833 Leonid storm fulfilled scripture and heralded the Second Coming?
Joseph Smith
Many Native American birthdays were reckoned by reference to the same 1833 event.
Q 23The Geminids are unusual because their parent body is not a comet but which asteroid?
3200 Phaethon
It was the first asteroid discovered from spacecraft images, spotted by the IRAS satellite in October 1983.
Perfect skies means stars down to magnitude 6.5 are visible; real rates are almost always lower.
Q 14The Perseids are associated with which comet?
Swift–Tuttle
Its 133-year orbit sits in an 11:1 resonance with Jupiter, and its 26 km nucleus is unusually large.
Q 15The Perseids' parent comet was independently discovered by two American astronomers in which year?
1862
That year it shone as bright as Polaris; Chinese records show it reached magnitude 0.1 in the year 188.
Q 16Early calculations once suggested the Perseids' parent comet could hit Earth or the Moon in which year?
2126
Refined orbits show no threat for two thousand years, though a 4479 approach carries a one-in-a-million impact chance.
Q 17Some Catholics call the Perseids the 'tears' of which martyr, whose feast falls on August 10?
Saint Lawrence
Folklore says the shooting stars are sparks from his martyrdom, and cooled 'coal of Saint Lawrence' appears under plants that night.
Q 18The Perseids' name comes from a Greek word for whom in mythology?
The sons of Perseus
Most of the stream's particles have orbited for about a thousand years, though a young filament shed in 1865 can cause an early mini-peak.
Q 19Which comet is the parent of the Leonids?
Tempel–Tuttle
Its retrograde orbit means Leonids hit the atmosphere head-on at about 70 km/s, the fastest of any annual shower.
Q 20Leonid meteor storms recur roughly how often, matching their parent comet's orbital period?
Every 33 years
When storms failed to appear in 1899, many assumed the dust had moved on for good, until 1966 proved otherwise.
Q 24The Geminids' parent asteroid holds what distinction among named asteroids?
Closest approach to the Sun
Its perihelion of 0.14 AU is less than half of Mercury's, hence the name of Helios's reckless son.
Q 25On what date do the Geminids usually reach their highest intensity?
The morning of December 14
Rates can hit 120 to 160 meteors an hour, and Geminid particles are notably denser than fluffy cometary dust.
Q 26The Geminids were first observed in which year, much later than the ancient Perseids and Leonids?
1862
Perseid sightings go back to 36 AD and Leonid records to 902 AD.
Q 27The Quadrantids are named after Quadrans Muralis, a constellation created in 1795 by which astronomer?
Jérôme Lalande
It vanished when the IAU fixed the 88 modern constellations in 1922, and the shower now appears to come from northern Boötes.
Q 28Why are Quadrantid meteors seen less often than Perseids or Geminids despite a comparable top ZHR?
Their peak lasts only hours
Rates stay above half maximum for only about eight hours, versus two days for the Perseids, and the meteors are faint.
Q 29Peter Jenniskens tentatively identified the Quadrantids' parent body as which minor planet?
2003 EH1
It may be related to comet C/1490 Y1, recorded by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers some 500 years ago.
Q 30The April Lyrids come from dust shed by which long-period visitor, C/1861 G1?
Comet Thatcher
They are the strongest annual shower from a long-period comet, and outbursts occur roughly once every 60 years.