6.6. Meteors

Many times we see a streak of light in the sky during night which disappears within seconds. It is called a meteor or shooting star. Meteors are the heavenly bodies from the sky which we see as a bright streak of light that flashes for a moment across the sky. The meteors are also called shooting stars. Some meteors are the dust particles left behind by comets and others are the pieces of asteroid which have collided. When a meteor enters into the atmosphere of earth with high speed, a lot of heat is produced due to the resistance of air. This heat burns the meteor and the burning meteor is seen in the form of a streak of light shooting down the sky, and it falls on the earth in the form of dust.

If a meteor is big, a part of it may reach the earth’s surface without being burned up in air. This fragment is called a meteorite. Thus, a meteor which does not burn completely on entering the earth’s atmosphere and lands on earth is known as a meteorite. Meteorites are a sort of stones from the sky. By studying the composition of meteorites we can get valuable information about the nature of the material from which the solar system was formed. It should be noted that the number of meteorites striking the moon’s surface is quite large whereas very few meteorites reach the earth’s surface. This is due to the fact moon has no atmosphere to burn the falling meteorites by producing the frictional heat.