Mary Hill, age 8, of Englewood, Florida, for her question:

Just what is a falling star?

A so called falling star i.3 enough to bewilder any young space ager. Naturally you know that a mighty star is big enough to swallow millions of earth sized planets  ¬and still have room for dessert. Then you see a starry bright spark arching over the sky down to the ground. People call it a falling star or a shooting star. But surely it can't be one of the whopping real stars. Of course it isn't. It is really a meteor, a smallish chuck of solid rock or metal that has been traveling through the solar system. When it comes too close to our bulky earth, gravity pulls it down.

As it falls, the gaseous air makes it hot    hot enough to light up and burn. This is why the meteor looks like a falling star. Actually, most meteors are no bigger than grains of sand. They burn to ashes high above the earth. Some are as big as pebbles and even boulders. After their blazing fall, there is enough of them left to plonk on the land or splash in the sea. Then their space traveling days are over. These grounded meteors are then called meteorites