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2007-03-30 10:55:34 · 10 answers · asked by softnhotkitty 1 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

10 answers

The terms are interchangeable. They both refer to small rocks that fall through the atmosphere, burning up as they go. I suppose you could say a falling star appears to be heading toward the ground, or at least the horizon, while a shooting star appears to be headed "upward", but it's simply a matter of where you're standing. They both do the same thing.

Meteor (a more technical term) showers occur at specific times of the year. They are trails of debris from passing comets or asteroids that the Earth passes through on its trip around the Sun. They are given names based on the constellation they appear to be coming out of. So the perseid meteors all radiate outward from the constellation Perseus, the geminids from Gemini, the orionids from Orion, etc. They aren't really coming from there, it's just our point of view.

2007-03-30 12:22:43 · answer #1 · answered by skepsis 7 · 0 0

There are two answers. First, a falling star and a shooting star, applied to events in the atmosphere, are the same thing, pieces of asteroids or comets encountering the atmosphere and becoming hot enough to glow and disintegrate (if they don't disintegrate and hit the ground they are called meteorites).

But, if you take the question as stated and think in terms of actual stars, then you must state that there is no such thing as a star shooting in any manner. However ALL stars are falling in some direction, in some trajectory, around another star or a galaxy. Even if you separate the question into which is more rare, a meteor or a falling star, and take the question as it is, falling stars (real stars, as explained above) are more common than meteors.

2007-03-30 14:12:28 · answer #2 · answered by David A 5 · 1 0

properly, they're no longer stars - if yet another fashionable man or woman hit the overall neighbourhood, no longer to educate the planet, you would study it - for more advantageous or less a nanosecond earlier you purchased flashfried ;) What you're seeing is a meteor - a fragment of rock or dirt or metallic, mainly from comet trails or asteroid debris. at the same time as they're in area, they're called meteoroids. The falling area you spot - it extremely is definitely seen to the human eye, really, a pleasing meteor bathe called the Perseids merely complete - is termed a meteor, and if a fragment manages to live to inform the tale the autumn, it really is called a meteorite. The Perseids, by the way, are debris from the tail of the comet quick-Tuttle. it really is in reality a cloud of dirt that Earth periodically strikes through, left by technique of the comet.

2016-12-03 01:11:32 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

These are just 2 terms for the same physical phenomenon - a meteor partly or completely vaporizing as it enters and travels through the earth's atmosphere.

2007-03-30 13:43:41 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Falling stars are way more rare. You are more likely to see streaks of cosmic debris than to actualy witness one falling to the Earth, because usually the debris burns away before it touches the ground.

2007-03-30 10:59:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

a falling star is more rare

this is true now,so dont say you didnt know this!
you know a shooting star,well it shoots at the devils,you see,the devils try to listen to the angels,so the stars burn the devils

2007-03-30 10:59:35 · answer #6 · answered by Jo 5 · 0 1

Same thing. They are both names given to meteors.

2007-03-30 11:03:43 · answer #7 · answered by retirist 2 · 2 0

shooting star= commets passing us by
falling star=commets actually hitting the earth (therefore rarer)

2007-03-30 10:59:33 · answer #8 · answered by Ruth Less RN 5 · 0 2

same thing

2007-03-31 01:50:35 · answer #9 · answered by Raven 3 · 0 0

isn't that the same thing?

2007-03-30 10:58:33 · answer #10 · answered by sunnysky4u 3 · 1 0

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