The bright object streaking across the night sky looks like a star has been shot from a sling shot into the unknown, but it is only an optical illusion from an observation point here on earth. To really know what a “shooting star” is, we first need to know exactly what they are made up of.
Of course shooting stars (also called falling stars), aren’t really stars since stars are huge like our sun. It is small piece of rock, possibly containing metallic ore or metal debris usually about the size of a small pebble or a grain of sand that has been pulled into earth’s atmosphere by the gravitational forces of our planet. But where does this debris come from?
Some of this debris comes from the asteroid belt. After our solar system formed there were rocks, some of which contain metal like substances or were made up almost entirely of metal, left over from the formation of planets. Many of these huge rocks, called asteroids, gathered together in a group that orbits between Mars and Jupiter and this is called the asteroid belt. Because of the massive numbers of asteroids in the asteroid belt, there are occasionally collisions which knock loose small chunks of the asteroid, which are then called meteoroids. Meteoroid debris can also come from the moon or Mars while some of it is pieces of ice and rocks from the tails of comets that pass by the earth.
Meteoroid debris is like a space dust and as the earth orbits it passes through this space dust and debris. When the debris enters the earth’s atmosphere these tiny chunks of rock become known as a meteors. As the meteors pass through the earth’s atmosphere, friction heats them up to the point that they start to burn up and glow brightly. As the gravity of the earth pulls the glowing meteor closer to the surface of the earth, it leaves a brilliant streak of fire giving it the appearance of a star shooting across the sky. Most meteors burn up entirely before they reach the surface of the earth, however some do not burn up completely and actually hit the earth and then they are called meteorites. Meteorites have been found all over the earth and are mostly made up of stone, iron or a mixture of stone and iron unlike stars which are mostly composed of gases.
It is for these reasons that we know that what people call “shooting stars” or “falling stars” are not truly stars, but tiny pebbles of space debris burning up in the earth’s atmosphere. But many people still prefer to call them by their more intriguing moniker, shooting stars rather than debris.
