Summary:
- Meteors are not stars at all.
- The light you see comes from a small piece of matter burning up as it flies through Earth's atmosphere.
- When a meteor shoots through the atmosphere, it burns and glows.
- A meteoroid is dragged toward Earth by gravity and enters the atmosphere.
- Friction with the atmosphere heats the object quickly, so it starts to vaporize.
- The object is now a meteor.
- Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere; they never reach Earth’s surface.
- Large meteoroids may not burn up entirely in the.
- atmosphere.
- A small core may remain and hit Earth's surface, called a meteorite.