What Is a Meteor?

Ages 3-5 Simple Explanation

You know how sometimes at night you might see a bright streak zip across the sky really fast? That is called a shooting star, but guess what, it is not really a star at all! It is actually a tiny piece of space rock that is falling toward Earth.

When that little rock comes zooming into the air around Earth, it goes so fast that it gets super hot and starts to glow. That glow is what makes the bright streak you see. It is like the rock is burning up because it is going so, so fast!

Most of these space rocks are really tiny, some are smaller than a pebble or even a grain of sand. Even though they are tiny, they glow so bright because they are moving faster than anything you have ever seen!

If you are ever outside on a clear dark night, look up at the sky and be patient. You might see one zip by! It is like nature's own fireworks show, and it happens all the time.

Ages 6-8 More Detail

A meteor is the bright streak of light you see when a small piece of rock or dust from space enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up. People call them shooting stars, but they have nothing to do with actual stars. They are bits of space debris that happen to cross paths with Earth.

These space rocks are called meteoroids when they are floating around in space. When a meteoroid enters Earth's atmosphere and starts burning up, the glowing streak it makes is called a meteor. If a piece of it actually survives the trip and lands on the ground, that piece is called a meteorite. So one space rock gets three different names depending on where it is!

Meteors burn up because they enter the atmosphere at incredible speeds, sometimes 25,000 to 160,000 miles per hour. At those speeds, the air in front of the rock gets squeezed and heated so much that the rock glows white-hot and usually vaporizes completely.

You can see meteors on any clear night, but certain times of year are much better. A meteor shower happens when Earth passes through a trail of debris left behind by a comet. During a shower, you might see dozens of meteors per hour instead of the usual handful.

Some of the best-known meteor showers are the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December. All you need to watch them is a dark spot away from city lights, a blanket to lie on, and some patience. No telescope needed!

Ages 9-12 Full Explanation

A meteor is the visible streak of light produced when a meteoroid, a small piece of rock or dust from space, enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up due to friction. Despite being commonly called shooting stars, meteors have absolutely nothing to do with stars. They are small bits of solar system debris, often no bigger than a pebble or grain of sand, that happen to cross Earth's orbital path.

There are actually three related terms that describe the same object at different stages. A meteoroid is the piece of rock or dust while it is still floating in space. A meteor is the flash of light it produces as it burns up in the atmosphere. And a meteorite is any piece that survives the journey and actually reaches the ground. Most meteoroids are so small that they vaporize completely and never become meteorites.

Meteors burn up because they enter the atmosphere at extreme velocities, typically between 25,000 and 160,000 miles per hour. At those speeds, the air in front of the meteoroid gets compressed so rapidly that it heats up to thousands of degrees. This superheated air is what actually produces most of the light you see, not the rock itself burning.

Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a stream of debris left behind by a comet. As a comet orbits the Sun, it sheds dust and small rocks along its path. When Earth's orbit takes it through one of these debris trails, we get a burst of meteors all appearing to come from the same point in the sky. The Perseids in August, left by comet Swift-Tuttle, and the Geminids in December are two of the most reliable annual showers, sometimes producing 100 or more meteors per hour.

Every now and then, a larger meteoroid or small asteroid enters the atmosphere and produces an especially bright meteor called a fireball or bolide. These can be as bright as the full Moon and sometimes even produce a sonic boom. In 2013, a roughly 65-foot-wide asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia, producing a shock wave that shattered windows and injured over 1,500 people. Events that large are rare, but they remind us that space rocks are not always harmless.

Scientists study meteorites that reach the ground because they are actual samples of the solar system. Some meteorites are as old as the solar system itself, about 4.6 billion years, and they can tell us about the conditions that existed when the planets were forming. A few rare meteorites have even been identified as pieces knocked off the surfaces of Mars and the Moon by ancient impacts. Picking up a meteorite is literally holding a piece of another world.