AY Honors/Stars/Meteor

Leonid Meteor Shower in 1833

A meteor is the visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earth's (or another body's) atmosphere, commonly called a shooting star or falling star.

Meteors look a lot like comets in photographs but can easily be distinguished from them because a comet's motion can only be discerned by observing it for several hours, while a meteor's motion is immediately obvious (they are very fast and brief). An individual meteor can only be seen for at most a few seconds while a comet can be seen for days or weeks.