Are shooting stars only visible for only maybe a second but a meteor for a few seconds? I saw a falling star the other day, but I think it made a bigger streak and went slower than the others I've observed. (I usually catch them out of the corner of my eye, but have seen a few from beginning to end.) Was it a meteor?
2007-03-31 04:17:31 · 8 answers · asked by SomeGirl 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Shooting star is just a popular name for a meteor. They are the same thing. Some move faster than others.
2007-03-31 04:22:55 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A meteor IS a shooting star, by literal definition. A meteor is the bright streak of light you see as a meteorite burns due to friction during entry into the atmosphere.
Meteor - the bright streak, a "shooting star"
Meteorite - the actual piece of dirt itself
2007-03-31 11:22:17 · answer #2 · answered by P.I. Joe 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
They are all the same thing.
The best word is 'meteor' (from a Greek word indicating the atmosphere: same root as the word meteorology)
The meteor is the manifestation (as light, with maybe a short-lived trail) as the 'thing' zooms through the atmosphere at very high speed. The light is from air being violently compressed just in front; it is not the 'thing' burning up. The 'thing' gets ablated (like being sanded with sand-paper) by the shock waves in the air.
Before it reaches the atmosphere, it is called a meteoroid. If it survives passage through the air and hits Earth, it is called a meteorite.
2007-03-31 11:39:47 · answer #3 · answered by Raymond 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is a meteor that burns up in the atmosphere.....A meteor is a shooting star that has enough mass to hit the earth.
2007-03-31 11:27:57 · answer #4 · answered by GregK 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A shooting star is actually a meteor.
The term ' shooting star ' was invented in the early 1400's because they did not know astronomy as well as we do today.
They called it shooting star because they thought it was a star.
The term shooting star actually means a streak of light in the sky at night that results when a meteoroid hits the earth's atmosphere and air friction causes the meteoroid to melt or vaporize .
or explode
2007-03-31 11:22:55 · answer #5 · answered by spaceprt 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
meteoroid= a rock floating in space
meteor= the same rock burning up in Earth atmosphere
meteorite= the same rock if it makes it to the ground
falling (shooting) star= same thing as a "meteor"
2007-04-02 06:27:51 · answer #6 · answered by lampoilman 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes....just a much larger one. Shooting or falling...they're basically the same thing....usually called Meteorites. Some fragments can be quite large and make for some glorious fireballs in the sky.
2007-03-31 11:21:26 · answer #7 · answered by bradxschuman 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
A shooting star will have a tail on the end, while a metorite will just have be a passing dot
2007-03-31 11:20:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋