Question

What are meteors? Why are meteors commonly called shooting stars?

Answer 1

Hint: Meteoroids are particles in space or Earth's atmosphere that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives some time through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Meteor are small pieces of rocks when they are passed through the earth’s atmosphere they get burned due to large amounts of heat generated by the friction provided by air particles and dust particles and it appears as a beam of light. This beam of light is called a meteor or shooting stars.
Meteors are usually millimetre in size or even smaller than millimetre.
There are different types of meteors:-
1. Earth grazers
2. Fireballs
3. Bolides.
The light emitted by the meteoroid or any asteroid and as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere it breaks apart. The meteoroid will travel the same in earth atmosphere as it travels in space, but once it hits the Earth’s atmosphere it encounters large friction and begins to vaporize.
A meteor tail caused by a small-sized meteoroid is expanding up to a meter wide but, because of the high speed of the debris, maybe it extends to a miles long. When a meteorite strikes the earth’s atmosphere it strikes with a very high velocity, which makes the meteorite look flashy, and like a fireball.
There are different types of meteors depending upon their sizes and brightness.
1. Earth grazers are the common meteors that always remain close to the earth horizon and have the longest tail.
2. Fireballs are the common type of meteor, and they are long-lasting and brighter than earth grazers.
3. Bolides are bigger than fireballs and they mostly explode within the atmosphere. We can even hear an explosion and feel on the earth as they produce a sonic boom.

Note: When two asteroids collide with each other, then there is a small piece that breaks off between these asteroids which collie with each other. These pieces we get from asteroids after the collision between two asteroids are known as a meteorite. The size of a meteorite might change from less than a gram to tons.