Meteors and Meteorites

Meteors, sometimes called Shooting Stars, are not stars at all, but small rocks burning up at the top of the atmosphere.

Every day, around 100 tonnes of interplanetary material enters our atmosphere. Luckily, most of these objects are too small to reach the ground, and do not represent a danger.

However, some rocks are big enough so that they do not get totally burnt up. These fall all the way down to the surface and are called Meteorites.

These bits of rock are mainly small asteroids left over from when the Solar System formed, but some come from comets, the Moon and a few even from Mars.

Although you can see a few meteors any clear night, the best time is during a big Meteor Shower. These happen when the Earth passes through the junk left behind a comet. During a good shower, you may see as many as 100 meteors in an hour.