No such thing as a shooting star?!

What is a shooting star?

A shooting star is another name for a meteor.

A shooting star is another name for a meteor. And, oddly enough, a shooting star isn’t a star at all.

What is a shooting star?

Shooting stars are dusty, rocky bodies that burn up as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere.

Shooting stars vary greatly in size, but can be as small as a grain of sand

& as large as a boulder.

A shooting star, or a meteor, becomes classified as a meteor as soon as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, with a bright tail trailing behind it. This is what we see during a meteor shower, like Geminids or Quadrantids.

As shooting stars burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, they emit a fleeting flash of colorful light.

The color of this light can depend on what exactly the shooting star is made of.

why are “shooting stars” different colors?

These minerals, of course, have different elements. Iron, glows yellow, and is pretty common in shooting stars. Silicate rocks glow red as they burn, while rocks with copper glow green.

why are “shooting stars” different colors?

Because shooting stars are essentially rocks hurdling through space, they’re made up of different minerals.

why are “shooting stars” different colors?

clearing up the M word

MeteorMeteorites

Meteoroid

A meteor is a rocky body that burns up (and vaporizes!) in the Earth’s atmosphere

what is a meteor?

A meteor is also known as a shooting star.

what is a meteor?

A meteoroid is a general term for smaller-than-a-regular-asteroid asteroid; they orbit the sun and don’t burn up in Earth’s atmosphere like a meteor does

what is a meteoroid?

Meteorites are any portion of the meteoroid that survives its voyage through the atmosphere.

what is a meteorite?

Meteorites are any portion of the meteoroid that survives its voyage through the atmosphere.

what is a meteorite?

Because meteoroids are often the debris left from asteroids smashing into one another, it is most common for them to orbit the Sun, same as asteroids and comets do.

meteor orbit

Meteoroids are found near the rocky inner planets, like Mercury or Mars,

meteor orbit

Meteoroids are found near the rocky inner planets, like Mercury or Mars, as well as the outer, gas planets, like Saturn or Uranus.

meteor orbit

Meteoroids can also be found on the edge of the solar system in regions including in the Kuiper belt,

meteor orbit

Kuiper belt, which was named after the late University of Arizona astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who predicted its existence in 1951.

meteor orbit

why study meteors?Being untouched, unprocessed relics from the formation of our solar system, meteors provide understanding of the history of the solar system.

why study meteorites?

Some meteorites, for example, were long ago chipped off of other planets, like Mars. By studying this kind of meteorite, we can learn more about the red planet’s geology and atmosphere over time.

The University of Arizona where more than 52% of all near-Earth objects, including meteors, were discovered

Learn more about these discoveries at UA Research

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