A shooting star is a common name used to describe an unexpected streak of light seen in our night sky, otherwise known as a meteor. It’s caused by a small piece of an asteroid or comet (called meteoroids when they are outside Earth’s atmosphere) that burn up when entering Earth’s atmosphere.
If part of the meteoroid survives its fiery journey to land on Earth, it’s called a meteorite.
They can be as small as a grain of sand, travelling between 35–75km per second. As it travels through Earth’s atmosphere, friction causes it to heat up and burn. This is why we see it as a streak of light or star trail through the night sky. The darker the night sky, the easier “shooting stars” are to see!
What is a Meteor Shower?
A meteor shower occurs when our planet Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet after it has completed its journey around our Sun. For example, the Orionid Meteor Shower is caused by the debris left by well known Halley’s Comet.
When Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet, there are lots of pieces that can enter Earth’s atmosphere causing a greater number of meteors (or “shooting stars”). Hence the name meteor shower.
Some meteors are faster than others, some are leisurely and slow but leave glowing trails behind them, others blaze dramatically through the sky as different colour fireballs, depending on the elements making up the rocks or debris, so you might see green or orange fireballs.
