Shooting Star

This passage describes how shooting stars are formed.

Lexile Level: 1020L

Categories: Science & Technology

One starry night, you might see a falling star. No, it is not a real star falling out of the sky, but it looks like one. A falling or shooting star is really a meteor, which is rock or dust that falls into the earth's atmosphere and burns up. When the meteor burns up, it creates a trail of light that looks like a falling star. This trail of light is really a burning meteoroid, and if a piece of a meteoroid survives the burning, it hits the earth and is called a meteorite. Sometimes meteorites can strike the earth so hard that they create deep craters. Sometimes you may see many meteors or falling stars, in the dark sky. These trails of blazing meteors are called meteor showers. Often these are caused by debris from comets that orbit the sun at certain times of the year. Names for meteor showers are chosen by the constellation that is closest to them.