What makes a shooting star move ? How far will it travel ??

Question

What happens when it stops ?

Answer 1

It isn't a star, it's a meteor. The reason it looks like a 'shooting star' is that it is burning up & disintergrating when it hits the earth's atmosphere...

Answer 2

Lets get a few definitions straight:

The rocks etc in far eccentric orbit are called 'meteoroids'. They have meteoric potential (-oid = like, but not) but only if they enter a planetary atmosphere.

If their far orbit is disturbed such that they begin to move through the inner solar system in highly elliptical orbits they become 'bolides'. Every time they pass near another planet or other large enough object their orbit is affected.

If attracted by Earth's gravitational field they enter Earth's atmosphere and through frictional heating start to ablate in a spectacular fiery manner, creating a long streak through the night sky, called a 'meteor' or 'shooting star'.

Excluding catastrophic or extinction events they either ablate completely and therefore do not stop in the normal sense of ceasing to move, they simply cease to be, except as dust or vapour, OR

If their mass is sufficient to carry part of them more or less intact to the Earth's surface, then they stop with a more or less spectacular bang and the visible solid remains are 'meteorites'.

It is possible for a fast moving bolide passing at a shallow angle to become a meteor then skip back into space like 'ducks & drakes' where it reverts to a bolide. How far it travels then is anybody's guess, it could circle the solar system for billions of years racking up the miles or it might hit the next solid object it encounters, say, the Moon, not more than 250,000 miles further on. If this happens there is no meteor, because no atmosphere, and always results in a collision of the whole bolide.

Answer 3

As quoted from NASA's website:

"Shooting stars" or meteors are bits of material falling through Earth's atmosphere; they are heated to incandescence by the friction of the air. The bright trails as they are coming through the Earth's atmosphere are termed meteors, and these chunks as they are hurtling through space are called meteoroids. Large pieces that do not vaporize completely and reach the surface of the Earth are termed meteorites.

They move initially because of the sun's gravity and when they reach the earth's gravitational field they move because of that.

They travel varying distances depending on where they came from. Most will have come from within our solar system, probably from comets and asteroids. Many particles reach the earth surface because they become very small and literally float down to earth.

They stop when they reach the earth's surface. What happens when they stop depends on the size of the particle upon impact with the earth. If it's a very large meteorite and hits the ocean it could cause a tsunami. If it hits the the ground it could cause a huge explosion and form a crater. In most cases very little happens because the meteorite is very small or reduced to fine dust before it reaches the earth's surface.

Answer 4

A shooting star is really a chunk of rock that has entered the earths atmosphere and is burning up. How far it travels depends on its size and density. Some meteors make it all the way to the ground. If it is really big, when it stops will be when it crashes into the earth with a massive explosion.

Answer 5

You are of course referring to a meteor. A meteor moves relative to us because our solar system and everything else is in motion. The average speed of that motion is about 22 miles per second relative to the sun. If a meteor is "in sync" with the earth's motion, it will never hit us. But if it's relative speed to the Earth is it's closure speed (like two cars in a head-on collision moving at 60 mph will have a closure speed of 120 mph), then it will strike the atmosphere at between 7 miles per second to maybe 22 miles per second. If it's big enough, it won't get incinerated by our atmosphere and will actually strike the Earth. Either way, it will "stop." You've seen Armageddon, no doubt. Despite all its scientific inaccuracies, if a big enough meteor (or asteroid in this case) hits the Earth, it will destroy all life on Earth, if not the whole planet. Interestingly, and somewhat along this line of thought, it has been theorized that in a few billion years our Moon will get a bit too close to the Earth and cross the Roche limit (named after the scientist that did the math) and be pulverized by the Earth's gravitational effect. Meaning that someday the Earth will have a ring system that will rival Saturn's.

Answer 6

A shooting star is fired from a big gun somewhere in space. There are different sizes of these 'space guns', so depending on the size of gun used, this will determine how far the shooting star travels.
If the 'shooter' is fairly accurate, then there is a good chance that he/she/it will have hit their target, usually a planet like earth, and that will result in the said shooting star coming to a halt. Now, depending on the size of the shooting star, there will either be a small flare like explosion that does no damage at all, or if the shooting star is a larger one, then it could cause a lot of damage when it hits its target. This was evident early in the 20th century when someone fired a massive space gun, and the shooting star hit TUNGUSKA in Russia, causing a lot of damage.
Contrary to popular belief, it is definitely NOT space debris, or meteors - this is just a conspiracy to divert attention from the people who are firing these space guns at us.

Answer 7

Everything in the universe is moving relative to everything else.

Meteoroids are in orbit around the sun just as we and all the other planets and asteroids are. But many meteoroids have paths that cross the Earth's orbit.

Since every body that is orbiting the sun is travelling at several to many kilometers a second, the meteoroids encounter the Earth's atmosphere going many times faster than the shuttle.

Unlike the Shuttle, they have not got heat shields, so they burn up just like the shuttle did when it lost part of its heat shield.

If it is big enough, it, or part of it may survive to reach the surface of the Earth.

Lucky if you find one - they are quite valuable.

If you want to find one easily, volunteer for a term at the Antarctic station (McMurdo, if you are American). It is easy to spot meteorites out on the ice shelf because they look so dark against the ice, and because there are no other rocks out there, you know it is a meteorite.

Answer 8

A shooting star is just a meteor that has entered the earth's atmosphere and is burning up from the friction with the atmospheric molecules. It "falls" because of earths gravity. It will travel until it burns up completely or it hits earth. I hope this helps. If that is not what you were looking for e-mail me at [e-mail] and I will try to better answer you.

Nick

Answer 9

any object in space seems not to move. it's in other words, floating. usually objects are pulled by gravity. depending on how strong the gravity is pulling, the object goes that speed.

a shooting star looks like light because when it enters the atmosthsphere it burns up with all the friction it creates with the entry.

all of this is to my knowledge.

only one thing can stop it so far. impact. when a metorite hits the earth it's known as a meteor. that's the only thing right now that will stop it.

Answer 10

Gravity. It makes move everything in the whole universe. The distance it travels trought the atmosphere depends on mass of the "shooting star" which in fact is a small meteoroide. The "shooting" effect is caused by ionization in Earth's atmosphere. But usually meteoroids evaporate at altitude of 60-80 km.

Answer 11

Shooting stars are lumps of rock that have been pulled towards the earth by its gravity. When they enter the atmosphere they burn up due to friction, and so shine bright as if they were a star, hence their name.

It will travel until it is all burned up, or it hits the earth, whichever happens first.