2006-08-18 08:32:22 · 11 answers · asked by sreilly106 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
shooting stars are asteroids burning in the atmosphere...
they try to fall very fast to the ground... the air creates friction. friction heats the asteroid up.... the atseroid burns before reaching the ground (the VAST majority of them, at least). what can't burn is vaporized.
is that helpfull?
2006-08-18 08:40:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is NOT a piece of asteroid .
They are meteors, pieces of Comet debris.
What happens is .. Shooting stars are minute Comet bodies which encounter the earth in its annual revolution, and which become visible by coming with planetary velocity into the upper regions of the atmosphere. At certain periods, as on the 13th of November and 10th of August,
they appear for a few hours in great numbers,
apparently diverging from some point in the heavens, such displays being known as meteoric showers, or star showers. These bodies, before encountering the earth, were moving in orbits closely allied to the orbits of comets. When they hit our atmosphere they mix with the gasses and disintigrate or fall to earth .
2006-08-21 17:54:48 · answer #2 · answered by spaceprt 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is a meteor, a rock falling from outer space. (It can be partly made up of ice as well). It emits light because it's burning up in the atmosphere. The vase majority burn up completely (the resulting gasses and dust float in the atmosphere, the dust will eventually settle.) If the meteor is large enough, one or more pieces might actually hit the ground (or water), at which point it's called a meteorite. There have been significant meteor impacts in the past, there is (for instance) a place called "meteor crater" in Arizona, where a large meteor hit about 20 000 years ago (I think).
2006-08-18 08:43:51 · answer #3 · answered by drbarch 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is in fact a piece of an astroid that's burning up in
the atmosphere while falling towards the earth.
It's enormous speed causes friction with the molecules in the atmosphere, resulting in something like we've seen happening with a spaceshuttle some years ago.
2006-08-18 08:43:43 · answer #4 · answered by mc2_is_e 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is a meteorite that passes through the outer atmosphere of the earth. It starts to burn due to the friction of the atmosphere combined with the speed it is travelling. Once the meteorite has passed through the atmosphere, what's left continues its journey through space.
2006-08-18 08:40:55 · answer #5 · answered by Scabius Fretful 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is a metor burning up in the earths atmosphere. Most of them burn up before hitting the earth but some make it to the ground.
2006-08-18 08:39:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most "shooting stars" are roughly the size of a grain of sand. As they enter the atmosphere at around 40,000 mph friction causes them to heat up and vaporize. The glow you see is highly compressed air in front of the object that's become incandescent. Incidently, most of them are just sitting there. It's usually the earth hitting them.
2006-08-18 08:42:19 · answer #7 · answered by kevpet2005 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shooting stars are meteorites burning up in Earth's atmosphere. The smaller ones burn up, but if one is big enough it can hit the earth.
2006-08-18 10:16:07 · answer #8 · answered by jamesdkral 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Usually, they burn up on re entry. If it's large enough, it becomes a meteoroid on impact.
2006-08-18 08:41:57 · answer #9 · answered by S.A.M. Gunner 7212 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They're very small meteorites that burn up once they reach the atmosphear.
2006-08-18 09:35:32 · answer #10 · answered by suppy_sup 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋