shooting star

[ed2288]

hi. i was just doing a bit of casual stargazing last night and i saw a really clear flash of light falling quickly through the sky - it fell about 15 degrees in 1 second then vanished. Will this have been a meteor? And also how common are shooting stars?

[Hippy]

Could have been space junk from disintegrated satellites. Shooting stars are chunks of rock attracted by the earth's gravity that hurtle through the atmosphere so fast that the friction causes them to glow and burn brightly. Most burn up completely in the air. There are best times, for example twice a year there are meteor showers called the Perseids, and the Leonids. See http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/ for more info and some tips on how to spot meteor showers..