• Question: Are meteors real?

    Asked by to David, Linda, Tamas, Tom on 25 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Thomas Smith

      Thomas Smith answered on 25 Jun 2014:


      Yes! you might call meteors “shooting stars”, but they are actually small rocks entering our planet’s atmosphere from space.

      When the meteor hits our atmosphere, it is travelling so fast that air molecules in our atmosphere can’t get out of the way, this slows the meteor down but also heats it up (just like your hands getting hot when you clap them). The meteor gets so hot that it glows brightly, which is why we see a bright light shooting across the sky.

      If you go somewhere really dark at night (away from road lights) and stare up at the sky, it is likely that after a few hours you might see one.

      Most meteors are completely destroyed by the heat before they reach the ground, however, big ones might actually strike the ground, these are called meteorites.

    • Photo: David Davila

      David Davila answered on 25 Jun 2014:


      They sure are! I’ve seen them with my own two eyes!

      I always get confused, so here’s the difference between a meteorite, a meteor, and a meteoroid:

      A METEORITE is a chunk of rock flying through space, and then it happens to start coming down towards the earth, or passes through the air around the earth.
      We see a METEOR – a shooting star. When the meteorite flies superfast through the air, it gets very hot and glows and makes a streak behind it: make a wish!
      If the meteorite makes it to the ground, it’s called a METEOROID. We can keep these chunks of space rock to study or just because they’re super cool!

    • Photo: Linda Cremonesi

      Linda Cremonesi answered on 25 Jun 2014:


      Argh! I’m late at replying to this one! 🙂

      Tom and David gave a great answer, I would like to add only one thing.
      Meteors come from asteroids (big chunks of rock floating in space), and we have asteroids in our solar system! On a certain period of the year, I think it’s around August 12th, the Earth is getting into a part of our orbit which is especially full of asteroids, so we can see METEOR SHOWERS for the whole night!

      This happens every year, so if this is year on August 12th it’s not cloudy I would suggest you to look at the sky to watch this wonderful phenomenon!

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