What is a shooting star?
A quick streak of light flashes across the night sky. What made it?
On a dark, clear night you might see a quick streak of light. It zips across the sky and is gone in a second. People call it a shooting star.
But it is not a star at all. Stars are giant balls of hot gas, far, far away. A shooting star is much smaller and much closer.
Space is full of tiny bits of rock and dust. Most are smaller than a grain of sand. Earth flies through them as it travels around the Sun.
When a speck of space dust hits the air high above us, it is going very fast. It rushes into the air at many kilometres every second. The air in front of it gets squashed and very hot, and the air glows.
That glowing streak is what we see. Scientists call it a meteor. It happens about 100 kilometres up, ten times higher than aeroplanes fly.
The speck burns away completely. Nothing falls on your head. All you get is a beautiful flash to wish on.
On a dark night away from towns, you can usually see a few shooting stars every hour, even when there is no meteor shower.
Ask an adult to take you somewhere dark on a clear night. Lie back, look up and count the shooting stars you see in 20 minutes.