Meteor Images

Meteors (from the Greek word 'Meteoron' meaning sky phenomenon) are the streaks of light that are made when meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere (meteoroids are small asteroids). This generally happens at about 55 - 65miles above the Earth's surface. The actual meteoroids themselves are small particles left over from the birth of the Solar System about 5,000 million years ago. Funnily enough, not all Meteors are white, they come in different colours, such as blue, red and even green!

The Meteors are only visible in the sky for a second or so after which they burn up and vanish, although if they're big enough, they may fall to earth as a piece of charred rock (a Meteorite). Most meteorites are very small and can be tricky to spot, hardly ever doing much damage to the Earth. However, there is always the chance that a larger one will hit the Earth and we know that this has been the case in the past. For instance the crater made by the Barringer meteorite (which scientists estimate was about 30 metres in diameter) in Arizona around 49,000 years ago is 1.2 kilometres wide and 183 metres deep.