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Meteors (or 'shooting stars' as they're sometimes called) are really just bits of debris in space that the Earth encounters in its million mile a day plus orbit around the sun. This debris may be as small as a grain of sand (which is true of the vast majority), the size of a pebble, or a large rock, but when it enters the atmosphere, the friction created causes it to heat up and become incandescent as it speeds towards the ground. This is what we see as a meteor and obviously the bigger the rock, the more spectacular the meteor. In fact, there are reckoned to be about 6 million meteors entering the atmosphere every hour, but most of them are so small they go unnoticed.
These encounters may be just random, but often they come in predictable showers at the same time each year, when the Earth intersects the orbits of certain comets which have left behind detritus from their most recent by-pass of the Sun. These showers are named after the constellation from which they APPEAR to emanate, in the sky, eg, Leonids (Leo), Perseids (Perseus) and others.
If a meteor is large enough to survive the ablation of its mass from passing through the atmosphere, and actually make it to the ground, it is then termed a meteorITE.
These encounters may be just random, but often they come in predictable showers at the same time each year, when the Earth intersects the orbits of certain comets which have left behind detritus from their most recent by-pass of the Sun. These showers are named after the constellation from which they APPEAR to emanate, in the sky, eg, Leonids (Leo), Perseids (Perseus) and others.
If a meteor is large enough to survive the ablation of its mass from passing through the atmosphere, and actually make it to the ground, it is then termed a meteorITE.
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