Was it a shooting star ?

Question

Recently I was in Greece and around 10:30pm saw something that couldve been a shooting star. It was bright orange and quite big, and streamed directly downwards before disappearing quite quickly. I dont think it was a firework as there was no sound and none followed it. Any ideas as to what it was? Thanks

Answer 1

John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are both good examples of shooting stars.

Answer 2

Wow.

A shooting star is a meteor that is burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.

You likely saw metal or ice that was once floating around in outer space.

The bight orange fire streaking across the sky was due to the oxygen

in are atmosphere. I've seen this once in California, it

actually lit up the sky white for half a second. Amazing  

Answer 3

yes it was, every year at about august 12-14 the Perseid meteor shower occurs. this happens because of the comet Swift-Tuttle creating what is called a comet stream in front of the Earth's orbital path. because the comet crosses Earth's orbital path every year it leaves behind pieces of debris(rock and metal) which blast off the comet by solar radiation. these pieces lie in clouds in front of Earth untill the planet literally goes into the floating debris which, attracted to Earth's gravity, create the annual Perseid meteor shower. what you just seen,if I'm not mistaken, was a large chunk of rock or metal from the comet Swift-Tuttle, burning up in Earth's atmosphere. if it was large enough it may have survived the fall, however most meteors are vaporized. Meteors are high in the element Iridium, a rare element on earth but quite common in space.

Answer 4

Shooting stars are meteorites entering the earths atmosphere at an angle.

When something enters the earths atmosphere, it burns up, which is why the meteorite looks orange.

It's also really high in the sky (the stratosphere) which is why it looks like it's a long way away.

Answer 5

A shooting star is a meteor.  A meteor is the flash of light that you see when a meteoroid (space debris) passes through the Earth's atmosphere.  If all of the meteoroid does not completely burn up when passing through the atmosphere there will be a meteorite left over wherever it impacted the Earth's surface.

Answer 6

A shooting star is caused by a piece of space debris, burning up as it enters the Earths atmosphere, these are known as meteors. A meteorite is a piece of debris that causes the same effect but instead of burning up it actually makes it to the planets surface.