what do people mean by a shooting star.
2007-07-31 02:49:24 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
shooting star
A meteor; a streak of light in the night sky, caused by a meteoroid burning up as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
2007-07-31 03:58:20 · answer #1 · answered by ♥★pinky★♥ 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is a piece of rock which is known as a meteorite, which after entering the earth's atmosphere burns up due to friction.. it leaves a streak of light behind it so, it is called a shooting star... remember.. it burns up completely and is destroyed after entering the earth's surface.... on a clear night, you can see a lot of shooting stars in the sky!
2007-07-31 05:00:57 · answer #2 · answered by Harsh M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of the answers above are basically correct.
But I must say that the light comes from ionized air. The space dust particle enters the air at very high supersonic speed and this heats the air by creating a pressure wave ahead of the particle, like the pressure wave that makes sonic booms when super sonic airplanes fly. This heat causes the air to become ionized and glow. The heat also vaporizes the particle. So technically it isn't a burning particle, it is glowing ionized air around a vaporizing particle.
But I am being overly picky and technical.
By the way, detailed studies of the speeds of meteors and how they slow down in the air show most of them are fluffy dust balls, kind of like cigarette ash, rather than hard dense things like pebbles or grains of sand.
2007-07-31 03:06:23 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
"shooting stars" are small meteorites, which are chunks of material falling to earth from outer space. As they enter the atmosphere, friction heats them up and they produce a brief streak of light across the sky. Most of these small meteorites discintegrate before hitting the earth. Meteorites are composed of either silicate based rocky materials, metals such as iron and nickel or even pure carbon.
2007-07-31 02:58:14 · answer #4 · answered by Roger S 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
A shooting star is a meteor.
It is a piece of matter that enters our atmosphere and burns because of air friction.
In space it is called a meteoroid.
On the ground it is called a meteorite.
2007-07-31 02:55:15 · answer #5 · answered by J C 5 · 3⤊ 2⤋
What is called shooting star or Traveling star in certain literature is really What we call today "comets or meterorites.
As the taveling star enters the atompshere it burns and disappears as it comes down on earth.
2007-07-31 07:43:55 · answer #6 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere
2007-07-31 02:57:42 · answer #7 · answered by M Series 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
its a meteor, ( a chunk of rock from space) falling into the atmosphere and burrning as a result of the friction with the air.
2007-07-31 03:28:25 · answer #8 · answered by ge831 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is a grain of sand or a rock falling through our atmosphere and catching fire.
2007-07-31 02:56:51 · answer #9 · answered by eric l 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
A celebrity with a gun.
2007-07-31 02:55:29 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 6⤋