Question: How often does a shooting star happen?

Reka Nagy answered on 7 Nov 2016:

Every time a meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere! Shooting stars are not really starts, they are pieces of space rock (meteors) getting burned up by the friction of the atmosphere.

There are some periods when Earth is passing through regions of space that are more dense in terms of particles, causing meteor showers – for example, the Perseid meteor shower that occurs every year in August.

There are also a lot of ‘lesser’ meteor showers that are less impressive and might be missed entirely if you live in a city with lots of bright lights. It’s always best to head away from any bright sources of light so that you can see these events better.