Shooting stars?

Question

As I look at the stars at night, I see alot of what appear to be shooting ones. They travel alot faster than planes, and only for a short distance before they disappear. They shine with the same light as the other stars, only brighter. Are they comets?

What are these?

I also see alot of stars that move across the sky at the same speed as planes, but with only one bright white light, which is the same as other stars. They travel right across the sky in seemingly straight lines. They aren't planes, as they have the same light as stars, and only one, not flashing.

What are they?

Answer 1

the second ones you descrived are satelites. i used to see a lot of them int he sky. look like a tiny dot, or a star moving.

Answer 2

The ones which disappear rapidly, so-called "shooting stars", are tiny pieces of space debris ("meteoroids"), anything from the size of a grain of sand up to a smallish rock. When these strike our atmosphere, they're travelling so fast that the pressure they generate causes them to heat up and vaporize, emitting a bright streak of light as they go.

As for the points of light you see moving across the sky, you're probably seeing artificial satellites in orbit. They don't emit light on their own, but they do reflect sunlight so they can often be seen with the naked eye.

Answer 3

Shooting stars are very small fragments of rock that burn in the upper atmosphere.

The rapidly-moving "stars" you see are probably low-orbit satellites.

Answer 4

just metor burning up in the atomsphere.

Answer 5

Yep, the "Shooting stars" are real but they are meteorites, by the time they reach the surfact of the Earth. Due directly to the fact that they burn up within the Earth's atmosphere.  

Our atmosphere is very thick, I think it's about 20 miles thick, or so.  Anyway, a "rock" that passes through the atmosphere will burn up, hence "shooting stars".

Probably the "stars" that you see that aren't planes are low-flying sattelites, and/or telescopes.  There's a lot of "stuff" that humans have placed in space that circle the Earth and I feel that is what you are "seeing/watching"!