13 spectacular meteor showers that you won't want to miss

We call them "shooting stars."

That's because they streak across the sky leaving behind thin glowing trails of light.

But meteors aren't really stars at all. They're actually cosmic debris: Tiny specks of dust and ice released from comets that pass too close to the sun.

As Earth passes through this debris, the specks get pulled into our atmosphere, where they rub up against air molecules, then burn up. This creates the streaking that we see in the sky.

Here are the annual meteor showers that you won't want to miss.