Hi, I built this and want to share some background:
Each data point corresponds directly to a real meteor entry into the Earth's atmosphere recorded by NASA CAMS (http://cams.seti.org). Using this network of cameras, we can capture enough information about a meteor to compute its orbit around the sun. That means each particle has unique orbital parameters that accurately reflect a former meteorite in space.
In order to visualize the cloud, the epoch of these orbits is randomized. In other words, each particle begins at a random location in its orbit. This is done so the visualization can be continuous rather than only showing a clump of meteors from ~2012-2018.
<pedantic> A meteorite is an object that hits the ground. A meteor burns up on the atmosphere. When they are still in space and only potential meteors/meteorites, they are called meteoroids. </pedantic>
Each data point corresponds directly to a real meteor entry into the Earth's atmosphere recorded by NASA CAMS (http://cams.seti.org). Using this network of cameras, we can capture enough information about a meteor to compute its orbit around the sun. That means each particle has unique orbital parameters that accurately reflect a former meteorite in space.
In order to visualize the cloud, the epoch of these orbits is randomized. In other words, each particle begins at a random location in its orbit. This is done so the visualization can be continuous rather than only showing a clump of meteors from ~2012-2018.
Open source here: https://github.com/typpo/showers