Every night around the world, thousands of automated aerial cameras monitor flashes of light that streak the atmosphere. I’m one of the scientists studying these meteors and what they can reveal about our solar system.
Popular movies and breaking news usually focus on giant asteroids that could threaten Earth. Every few months, we also hear about another large space rock passing nearby. But the much smaller particles that continually enter Earth’s atmosphere every day can tell scientists an equally interesting story.
My planetary science colleagues and I analyze images from a camera network of the night sky to study debris left behind by cosmic dust, asteroids, and comets.
A study published in March 2026 examined millions of meteor detections recorded by sky camera systems across Canada, Japan, California, and Europe. During that search, I identified a small cluster of recently formed meteors. The 282 meteors in this group appear to be traced back to asteroids that came dangerously close to the sun.
How meteors form
When tiny rock grains from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, they heat up quickly. That outer layer evaporates into a charged gas, causing the object to glow brightly. That glowing streak is what scientists call a meteor. Larger flying objects, such as rock-sized rocks, that produce particularly bright flashes are known as bolides or fireballs.
These objects typically hit the atmosphere at speeds in excess of 15 miles per second. For very small particles, the entire event lasts only a fraction of a second before the material burns out completely.
Most of the tiny debris that produces meteors originate from comets, which are icy objects that originally formed in the cold outer reaches of our solar system. When a comet approaches the Sun, its ice turns directly into gas, releasing large amounts of dust into space. This process gives comets a fuzzy appearance and explains why astronomers often refer to them as “dirty snowballs.”
Asteroids are different. They are dry, rocky objects that formed near the Sun early in the solar system’s history and generally lack the icy material that produces comet tails.
What makes an asteroid “active”?
Astronomers say an asteroid or comet is “active” when it ejects dust, gas, or larger material into space. Several different forces can cause this activity, including heat from the sun, collisions, or very fast rotations that cause objects to break apart.
Studying this activity helps scientists understand how asteroids and comets physically evolve over time.
For comets, the main cause is usually ice sublimation. This happens when solid ice changes directly to a gas without becoming a liquid. However, asteroids can become active for a variety of reasons.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission visited asteroid Bennu and observed material ejected from the asteroid’s surface. Scientists believe that heat stress and small shocks are among the most likely causes.
Other possible explanations for the asteroid’s activity include rotational fragmentation, gravitational tidal forces during planetary approach, and release of trapped gas.
Astronomers often use telescopes to look for signs of activity. A visible tail or fuzzy cloud around an object usually indicates the presence of gas or dust. But meteor showers provide another powerful way to detect active objects in space.
Meteor shower could reveal hidden asteroids
One of the best-known active asteroids is 3200 Phaethon, the source of the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks every December. As it passed close to the Sun, Phaethon released a large amount of dust and debris. Over time, those fragments spread along the asteroid’s orbit, creating the meteor shower that Earth passes through each year.
Meteor showers occur whenever Earth passes through one of these streams of debris. For this reason, meteor showers help astronomers discover active asteroids and comets that would otherwise remain hidden.
When the debris first separates from an asteroid or comet, it remains tightly grouped. Imagine squeezing a drop of food coloring into running water. At first, the color remains dark, but as the water moves, the color gradually disperses.
A similar process occurs in space. Gravity from the planet slowly pulls on individual pieces in different ways, causing the once compact stream to widen and eventually dissolve into the background dust that fills the solar system.
‘Rocky comet’ burned by the sun discovered
In my research published in March 2026, astrophysical journalI scoured millions of meteor observations looking for evidence of previously unknown asteroid activity near Earth. One cluster containing 282 meteors stood out clearly.
This discovery is interesting because it appears to capture an asteroid actively collapsing under intense solar heat. The newly identified meteor shower follows an extreme orbit that is nearly five times closer to the sun than Earth’s orbit.
By studying how these meteors break up in Earth’s atmosphere, scientists find that they are somewhat brittle, but still stronger than typical comet material. Evidence suggests that extreme heating from the sun cracks the asteroid’s surface, releasing trapped gas and causing the asteroid body to slowly disintegrate.
This same process may explain much of the past activity seen from Phaethon, and may also help explain why meteorites found on Earth vary so widely in composition and structure.
Search for parent asteroid
Finding hidden asteroids that are actively collapsing is important because meteor observations can reveal objects that cannot be detected with regular telescopes.
In addition to solving scientific mysteries, studying this debris can help researchers better understand how asteroids and comets change over time. Additionally, the previously hidden population of asteroids near Earth will be revealed, providing valuable information for planetary defense efforts.
Scientists have not yet identified the parent asteroid responsible for this newly discovered meteor shower. But NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission, scheduled to launch in 2027, could help solve this mystery.
The spacecraft is specifically designed to detect dark and potentially dangerous asteroids that travel close to the sun. This makes it an ideal tool for tracking the source of this unusual meteor shower.
