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Meteors

Meteors, also known as shooting stars, are pieces of dust and debris from space that burn up in Earth's atmosphere, where they can create bright streaks across the night sky. When Earth passes through the dusty trail of a comet or asteroid's orbit, the many streaks of light in the sky are known as a meteor shower. Particularly large chunks of material can create an extra-bright fireball streak, but most meteors are still small enough to entirely burn up in Earth's atmosphere. If a meteor makes it to Earth it's known as a meteorite. Before they hit atmosphere the objects are called meteoroids. 

Related Topics: Asteroids, Aurora Borealis, Comets 

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Justin Ng of Singapore captured this view of a bright Eta Aquarid meteor hurtling across the night sky over Mount Bromo, on the Indonesian island of Java.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower of 2021 peaks this week. Here's how to see it.

By Joe Rao

The ground test model of the European Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover is about to leave the clean rooms of Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. (Credit: Thales Alenia Space)

Pictures from space! Our image of the day

By Space.com Staff

The ground test model of the European Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover is about to leave the clean rooms of Thales Alenia Space to commence a test campaign at a nearby Mars Terrain Simulator.

Fragment of asteroid 2018 LA recovered in Central Kalahari Game Reserve in central Botswana.

Meteorite that landed in Botswana tracked to its birthplace in the asteroid belt

By Nicoletta Lanese

The space rock fragments originally came from Vesta, scientists concluded.

A Lyrid meteor lights up the sky over Schermbeck, Germany, on April 22, 2020.

The Lyrid meteor shower of 2021 peaks tonight! Here's how to see it.

By Elizabeth Howell

One of springtime's most prominent "shooting star" groups peaks overnight tonight (April 21-22).

Scientists have baked meteorites in a new study investigating the atmospheres of rocky planets.

Scientists baked meteorites in an oven to investigate the atmospheres of alien planets

By Chelsea Gohd

Scientists baked meteorites in an oven and studied the gases they released to investigate the atmospheres of rocky planets.

A meteor shower.

Lyrid meteors face off against a bright moon this week

By Joe Rao

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks on Thursday morning (April 22), the first good meteor shower in nearly four months, although a bright moon could interfere.

Lyrids meteors streak aross the night sky over Burg auf Fehmarn on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn, in northern Germany, on April 20, 2018.

Lyrid meteor shower 2021: When, where & how to see it

By Jesse Emspak

In late April, skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will get a view of the Lyrid meteor shower, the dusty trail of a comet with a centuries-long orbit around the sun.

This image is a composition of 33 Leonid meteors captured overnight from Nov. 18 to 19, 2001.

How to see the best meteor showers of 2021

By Doris Elin Urrutia

Meteor showers are the occasional reminder that the solar system is full of dirty and icy clumps, but you wouldn't describe them that way when you see them shining across the night sky.

Satellite image of the continental U.S. with a red circle drawn near the Florida coast, indicating the location of a fireball that crossed the sky off the east coast

Fireball meteor burns up over South Florida

By Nicoletta Lanese

The meteor was spotted at about 10 p.m. local time on April 12.

An artists impression of a meteor breaking apart during the daytime.

Rare daytime fireball meteor creates massive sonic boom over UK

By Harry Baker

A rare fireball meteor bright enough to be seen during the day triggered a massive sonic boom over parts of the UK and France.

A chunk of the meteorite that was recovered from Winchcombe in England on March 1, 2021 — the first meteorite found in the United Kingdom since 1991.

Meteorite from brilliant UK fireball is England's first in 30 years

By Mike Wall

The singed hunk of asteroid was discovered in the driveway of a house in Winchcombe, a small town in the southwestern English county of Gloucestershire.

An illustration shows a meteor passing through the atmosphere.

Meteor explodes over Vermont with the force of 440 pounds of TNT

By Rafi Letzter

If you live in Vermont and heard an explosion just before dinnertime Sunday (March 7), there's a good chance that was a shockwave from an incoming meteor exploding over the state.

The fireball that streaked over southern England on Feb. 28, 2021, as seen by Ben L., who provided it to the American Meteor Society.

Brilliant yellow-green fireball lights up sky above England (video, photos)

By Mike Wall

A fireball blazed across the skies of southern England Sunday night (Feb. 28), and it likely dropped singed hunks of cosmic rock on the countryside below.

A 30-pound chunk of iron meteorite found in Uppsala, Sweden.

Lumpy, 30-pound meteorite that crashed in Sweden recovered in local village

By Stephanie Pappas

Two meteor enthusiasts have found a piece of an iron meteorite that fell over Sweden in November 2020.

Artist's rendering of a comet headed toward Earth.

Dinosaur-killing space rock may have originated at the edge of the solar system

By Stephanie Pappas

The chunk of space rock that killed the nonavian dinosaurs may have been a piece of a comet that Jupiter's gravity kicked onto a collision course with Earth.

"Shooting stars" rain down on Big Bend National Park in Texas in this photo of the 2016 Perseid meteor shower.

Imaginary Earths: Countless Falling Stars

By Charles Q. Choi

What if the world were constantly bombarded with space-rock smashups, big enough and frequent enough to shape the course of entire cultures?

Photographer Jeff Berkes captured several Quadrantid meteors in this long-exposure image taken in the Florida Keys on Jan. 2, 2012, during the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. The 2020 Quadrantids will peak on Jan. 2 and 3.

The Quadrantid meteor shower, usually one of the best, peaks at the wrong time this weekend

By Joe Rao

The Quadrantid meteor shower of 2021 peaks overnight on Jan. 2 and 3, but the bright moon will spoil the view.

Quadrantid meteor shower over Florida Keys

Quadrantid Meteor Shower 2021: When, Where & How to See It

By Elizabeth Howell, Hanneke Weitering

2021 will be a lackluster year to see the annual Quadrantid meteor shower during its sharp peak overnight on Saturday (Jan. 2). Here's our guide.

The strange bright spots of Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres are unmistakable in this spectacular photo by NASA's Dawn spacecraft taken on Oct. 17, 2016 and released on Nov. 18 as Dawn moves into a higher orbit.

Mysterious asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system

By Rafi Letzter

There's a giant asteroid somewhere out there in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth that left behind meteorites unlike any scientists had ever seen.

On Nov. 18, 2020, a bright green meteor streaked across the night sky near CSIRO’s research vessel Investigator, which is currently stationed in the Tasman Sea, off the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia.

Fireballs, spaceships and … iguanas? 7 strange things that fell from the sky in 2020

By Nicoletta Lanese

Here's a list of 7 intriguing objects — and a few reptiles — that made headlines for falling from the sky.