Meteors

📖 In short

A meteor is a bright streak of light we see in the sky for a moment at night. People call it a “shooting star”, but it isn't a star at all! It's a small piece of rock or metal that enters the Earth's atmosphere very fast, burns up and glows.

🤩 Did you know?

The biggest meteorite ever found weighs about 60 tonnes and is in Namibia.
An amazing meteor shower was seen on 13 November 1833.
Most meteors burn up tens of kilometers high.
Meteors are mentioned in the Qur'an.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Why does it glow?

The rock enters the air incredibly fast, much faster than a bullet, so it rubs against the air and gets so hot it burns and lights up. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand!

🔍 Meteor showers

On certain nights of the year the Earth passes through dust left by a comet, and we see lots of meteors in an hour; this is a meteor shower. The best known is the Perseids in August.

💡 Meteorites

If the piece is big and doesn't burn up completely, it falls to Earth and is called a meteorite. Scientists collect and study meteorites because they come from space.

🎯 Meteorite craters

When a huge meteorite falls, it digs a big round hole in the ground called a crater. In the Empty Quarter desert there are meteorite craters called the “Wabar craters”.