Jody Mygatt, age 10, of Logan Utah

Where do shooting stars come from?

A ‘so called shooting star is really a little space traveler. It may be a bit of rock as big as a .pebble or even as big as a boulder. But as a rule it is no bigger than a grain of sand. We call it a meteor and it travels the spaceways between the planets of the Solar System. For ages of time it travels very fast through these vast oceans of space.

Then one day it has a traffic accident, It collides with our big round earth. The earthts gravity pulls it downs, down through the air. The fast journey through the air heats up the falling meteor. It cuts through the air like a match striking a matchbox. It becomes tinder hot and burns. As a rule, the little space traveler is all burned to ashes before it reaches the ground. If the meteor is big enough to survive the fall it hits the ground as a lump of stone or metal and we call it a meteorite.