How a Meteor Shower Occurs

 How a Meteor Shower Occurs

Let's consider how a meteor shower occurs.

 Here, as a comet travels around the Sun, the dust particles in the comet's tail are deposited in the path of the comet.

When the path of that dusty comet intersects the Earth's path as it travels around the Sun, the dust particles are attracted to the Earth and burn up as they collide with the atmosphere, resulting in a meteor shower. 

An example of a meteor shower that occurs in this way is the Leonid meteor shower. It is caused by the comet 55/P Temple-Tuttle.