How are meteor showers connected to comets?
Meteor showers are fundamentally connected to comets through the debris they leave behind in space.12
As a comet travels near the Sun, solar heating causes its volatile ices to vaporize, releasing dust and larger grains of material along the comet's orbital path. These particles form a meteor stream—a trail of debris that continues to orbit the Sun in a path very similar to that of the parent comet.12
A meteor shower occurs when Earth’s own orbit intersects one of these debris-populated paths. As Earth passes through the stream, the dust grains collide with the atmosphere at high velocities, heating up to incandescence and creating the luminous streaks known as meteors. While most showers are linked to active comets, some are associated with objects like Phaethon, which researchers believe may be the burned-out remnant of a once-active comet.123