what is a shooting star

A shooting star is not actually a star, but a small piece of rock or dust that hits Earths atmosphere from space. These small particles move so fast that they heat up and glow as they move through the atmosphere, creating the appearance of a star shooting across the sky. Astronomers call shooting stars meteors, and most of them burn up in the atmosphere before they reach the ground. However, occasionally a meteor is large enough that some of it survives and reaches Earth's surface, at which point it is called a meteorite. Shooting stars can be seen randomly appearing somewhere above your head and zipping across the sky, with roughly a half-dozen visible every hour from a dark site anywhere on Earth.