Brenda L. Andersen, age 10, of Omaha, Nebraska, for her question:

Would a fallen star make a hole in your backyard?

If you match the starry sky for half an hour, you are sure to see at least one bright falling spark. You may call. it a falling star, but experts call it a meteor. They assure us that most meteors burn to ashes long before they reach the ground. But a fern of them do land on the earth    and when they do they are called meteorites. And meteorites come in various sizes. ?lost of them are small pebbles. But once in a great while a mountain sized meteor comes hurtling down.

Ales ago, a monster meteorite crashed down in Arizona and dug a deep hole a mile snide. This, of course, is the famous sight called meteor Crater. Do not expect such a rare event to happen in your backyard. It is not likely that even a pebble sized meteorite iyill fall in your neighborhood. If by chance this does happen, it will fall with a soft thud. It won't make a hole or even a small dent in the ground. Most meteorites splash down in the sea. Others fall on the land, almost always in the wide unpopulated places. A meteorite in a backyard is almost unheard of.