It's a chilly night in November. You pull your sweater tight around you and gaze upward. A pinpoint of light makes a glowing trail across the dark sky. You've just seen a meteor!

Meteors are often called shooting stars or falling stars. But shooting stars are not really stars at all. They are cosmic debris, or broken particles, entering the Earth's atmosphere. Friction between the atmosphere and the debris causes the debris to burn up, which leaves a visible trail.