How can we make a difference between falling stars and space satellites?

Question

I saw a falling star that night. But actually, I'm not sure what is it. It looks like a glowing star. Suddenly, it felt down to the earth to nowhere. Is this really a natural actions, or just a space sattelites?

Answer 1

By "falling star" you probably mean a meteor. These are not stars, but small pieces of material from outer space which enter our atmosphere and cause it to glow. They tend to last for a second or less and move very fast.

Satellites move more slowly and mostly shine with a steady light, though some are tumbling or have solar panels which reflect the Sun, so may vary a bit in brightness. They're usually visible for five to ten minutes as they work their way across the sky.

When satellites or other junk in Earth orbit come down, they move faster than a normal satellite, though not as fast as a meteor. They tend to be very bright (since they're much larger than the tiny pebbles which cause meteors) and often break up into pieces.

Answer 2

Falling space junk is fairly rare, while you can see several meteors per hour any night of the year. If you familiarize yourself with what meteors look like, you'll be able to recognize the falling satellites.

Space junk is moving at something less than orbital speed, under 8 kilometers per second, while meteors move much faster - 11 to 72 kps. Space junk also tends to come down in larger chunks. So when you see something slow, very bright, and relatively long-lasting burning up in the atmosphere, it's probably space junk.

Answer 3

An artificial satellite was a man made object structure orbiting a planet,and a natural satellite would be a moon like substance caught in the gravitational field of a planet. It does not have to be as big as the moon,but it would have to be a big enough fragment or mass to be called a satellite. I hope that helps you.

Answer 4

The star you saw is a faling stat a satelite wouldnt glow that much and satelites wouldnt fall down to earth. I hope you made a wish. =P

Answer 5

There are no "falling stars". What you have seen probably was either some space junk or a shooting star.