spaceplasma:Meteor Seen from the International Space...

spaceplasma:

Meteor Seen from the International Space Station

The term meteor actually refers to the streak of light caused by a piece of space debris burning up in the atmosphere. The pieces of debris are called meteoroids, and remnants of the debris that reach Earth’s surface (or another planet’s) are called meteorites.

When a small ­meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it goes from traveling through a vacuum to traveling through air. Traveling through a vacuum is effortless — it takes n...