Have you ever seen a shooting star? This misleading term does not mean that a star is moving across the sky. Stars are, in fact, quite stationary. What we are seeing are meteors. Meteors are actually the visible trails left by meteoroids. Meteors are seen when a meteoroid trails through the earth's mesosphere. The light comes from the burning of the meteoroid, due to friction, as it passes through the atmosphere.
It is a common misconception that a meteor is the solid mass that flies through space. The light trail is known as a meteor. The meteoroid is the solid mass that soars through the heavens. Meteoroids can be any size from a grain of sand to the size of a boulder, or even bigger. They are almost exclusively made of rock or metal, unlike comets (which we will discuss later). Here we see a meteoroid that landed in Argentina.
The next time you see a meteor, remember, that is just the light. What truly creates the majestic sight is space rock and interplanetary dust. At the bottom, is one of the most bright, brilliant meteors ever captured on photo.
Please feel free to continue to wish on them. I still will be.
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