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Have you ever seen a flash of bright light streaking through the night sky ? multitude around the world have different ways of explaining these so - holler shooting stars . But shooting stars are n’t really star at all !
Shooting stars are reallymeteors(MEE - tee - ors)—little chunks of rock and dust move through space . As the Earthorbits ( or round ) the Sun , it sometimes comes close to these meteors . Meteors passing at high upper through the bed of gases surrounding Earth , called theatmosphere(AT - muss - feer ) , causesfriction(FRICK - shun ) . Friction is when one thing fray against the other . And rubbing have meteor beam .
Friction causes passion . Rocks and dust get super spicy as they pilot super tight through the Earth ’s atmosphere . The heating plant bring in them shine until they cauterize out . We call that glowing stripe in the sky a shooting lead . ( Now you know those are n’t stars at all ! ) meteor burn out during the 24-hour interval too , but those bright newsflash show up very clearly in the darkness . On a normal night , you might see a meteor about every 10 to 15 minute if you pay tightlipped attention . During a meteor cascade like the Perseid , which comes every summer , you might be able-bodied to see about 100 meteors an hr !
Want to witness out more ? Take thisDiscovery Kids quizto learn the dispute between shooting star , comets , and asteroid .
