Stars don't fall!!!!!!!!?

Question

Why do people call meteor showers falling stars? Stars don't fall.... that is like saying that the sun went behind a cloud.... Is this saying rooted in mythology. Where did this saying come from??

Answer 1

Ok, let's take a little trip. Let's go back to, oh, I don't know 1350 AD. You don't know about a Heliocentric universe (1st century in India, didn't catch on, 16th century in Europe) and all of those points in the sky don't really move at all. They move across the sky, but not in relation to each other.

Enter the meteor (actually, a meteor is the streak of light; the physical body is a meteoroid; the bit that may make it to the ground is a meteorite)... As it enters our atmosphere, it starts to burn and get really, really hot. Hot enough that it can eventually be seen by the naked eye. And, it does look like a star if it were to stop.

However, to your imagined self in 1350, this streak of light (which can only be a star because what else could possibly exist?) shoots across the sky looking for all the world like a star that's lost it's mind. The path it's taking does, however, look like the path a ball or arrow would take on it's way back down to earth. Therefore, the "star" must be "falling" or "shooting".

These types of questions are matters of perspective. Questions like this can be resolved if one puts themselves in an appropriate time and place and try to see it through a local's eyes.

Answer 2

they look like falling stars. Alot of them are spots of light about the same size as a star only moving. Now though math and what not we know stars are really gigantic and a real long ways away. With you naked eye no telecope can you tell the diffrence between a metero and a star by any means other then one moves and is only there for a few seconds. Other then that they look the same.

The sun really is behind a cloud though. If you think about it the could moves infront of the sun blocking your veiw of it. This means the sun is behind it.

it is kind of like when people talk about the sunset and sunrise. We know the earth is spinning but it looks like the sun is coming up.

Mythology comes from the same source as the sayings. Mythology was used to explain these events by people who did not understand them. So it was based off what it looked like was happening.

Answer 3

Came from Two lovers who were making out and then they got wild.. and in between there was a falling meteor.. The man said while he is getting buys : " Look honey.. meteor" , so the woman snapped him on the head saying : " DO not spoil this romantic moment idiot.. let's call it a star.. this is more sexy"

Answer 4

in ancient times when people thought the earth was flat and was the center of the universe, they didn't know what stars were and how far away they were, so anything moving through the sky and lighting up at night was like a star falling from the sky

Answer 5

Don't know whether stars fall or not, but certainly they have been close enough to earth for their particles to be captured. Several years ago a Japanese won the Nobel prize in science for capturing the essence of what is a star......

Answer 6

It came from the fact that way back in the day, nobody had telescopes so they looked at the sky and saw these twinkly things and WHOA! That one -totally- just fell out of the -sky-, man! Simple ignorance. We know the truth today, but you can't blame people from that far back for making an assumption. That's where learning starts.

Answer 7

Well, not mythology, but history. People didn't know the difference between those little dots of light, so planets and metors just became more stars.

Answer 8

I think it is rooted in Christian mythology that say's that lucifer was a fallen star...an Angel that went to hell.

Just my thoughts

Answer 9

They call them that because when they hit the atmosphere, they flair up brightly, and they look something like stars--hence the (as you pointed out--erroneous) term "falling stars."

Answer 10

if the sun was blocked by a cloud then ummm it is behind a cloud,if i stand in front of you are you not behind me?if your tanning and the clouds block the sun then isnt the sun behind the clouds?