Image Detail | Space-Art.Co.Uk

About "Shooting Star"

What we call shooting stars are, in reality, grains of cometary dust burning up in our atmosphere. But sometimes, shooting stars are real. As they speed through the interstellar medium at speeds of around 100-200 km/s, they can create a bow wave in the gases there, similar to the wake left on water by a passing boat. Additionally, as these stars speed through space, they can shed gas from their outer atmospheres, leaving behind them gaseous trails, light-years in length.