What are shooting stars

shooting stars, or meteors, are streaks of light that cross the night sky, although they can only be seen for one or two seconds. they are caused when a solid piece of rock called a meteoroid plunges through the earth's atmosphere, burning up due to air friction . if, as rarely happens, a small fragments reaches the earth, it is called a meteorite. sometimes these fragments of rock move through space as a meteor swarm or stream. they move in regular paths, and the larger fragments become detached and travel individually.

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this immpact crater in arizona was caused by huge meteorite. the amount of energy the impact released would have been equivalent to hundreds of nuclear weapons