Shooting stars or falling stars have always captured my interest. Did you know that these beautiful astronomical sights have nothing to do with stars?!
These streaks of light darting across the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock falling into the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up. Meteoroid is the proper name for the bits of rock and dust. The trail of light is called a meteor, but they are commonly called shooting stars. The part that doesn’t completely burn up and hits the Earth (if any) is called a meteorite.
When you see a great number of meteors one after each other, this is called a meteor shower. These occur at certain times of the year, and happen when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet. If you are lucky enough to be able to experience one of nature’s amazing phenomenon then do, it is worth it.
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