INTRODUCTION

A meteor, sometimes called a "shooting star," can be the brightest object in the night sky, yet meteors are the smallest bodies in the solar system that can be observed by eye. Wandering through space, perhaps as debris left behind by a comet, meteoroids enter the earth's atmosphere, are heated by friction, and for a few seconds streak across the sky as a meteor with a glowing trail. Each day as many as 4,000,000,000 (too long? lets just say 4 billion) meteors, most miniscule in size, fall to earth. Their masses total several tons, seemingly a large amount, but nothing compared to the earth's total mass of 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 (I have no idea what this number is!) tons, so there's no need to worry about that!