Why do objects burn upon entry into Earth's amosphere?

Answer 1

They come in at as a very high speed and compress the air in front of them. The compressed air heats up (it's not friction) and gets the meteor hot enough to burn or melt.

Answer 2

Even when you fly at 500 mph in an airliner the skin of the plane gets hot with friction.

The friction goes up at square of the speed, so at 5000 mph it is 100 times what it is at 500 mph.

Ok, re-entry is into thinner atmosphere, but even so the object is travelling many times faster than 5000 mph.

Note that most people get a false sense of the speed of satellites and space vehicles in general, because they are always filmed from soemthing travelling similar speed. If you were stationary (which isn't possible in space), the probe would pass you and be gone in the far distance in seconds. satellites are generally travelling about 5 miles/sec, so if one passes you and you count to 5, it will have vanished 25 miles distant.

When you appreciate that, it becomes clear that even thin air will make the thing hot.

Meteoroids are travelling even faster, up to 40 miles per second in some cases.

Answer 3

In order for an object to enter Earth's atmosphere instead of bouncing off, it must be travelling at great speeds (at least thousands of mph). Once the object hits our atmosphere, it begins to rub against the matter in our atmosphere. This creates friction which creates heat. Because the objects are moving so fast, they are rubbing up against tons of matter (mostly gases), which creates a lot of heat (about 5000 degrees Fahrenheit). That is why objects burn up in our atmosphere.

Answer 4

They enter the atmosphere at high speeds so the friction with the air causes them to heat up.

Answer 5

The friction of our planets atmosphere causes extreme temperatures at most speed associated with reentry.

Answer 6

Friction.

See http://science.howstuffworks.com/question486.htm