The Falling Star

Falling star or shooting star is the common name for a meteor; the visible path of a meteoroid as it enters the atmosphere. Very bright meteors such as the one captured above are called fireballs and they are all brighter than planet Venus (magnitude -4). If the meteoroid survives impact with the Earth’s surface, then it is called a meteorite that reach the ground. However most of the meteors which appear in our night sky are made by small particles and there are fewer meteoroids which are large enough to reach the ground. As noted by the photographer “I was out photographing moonlit landscape by the east coast of Sweden some 60km north of Stockholm. I was suddenly shocked by this fireball, the smoke trail lasted for 2 minutes and I was lucky to capture it! The night continued with another surprise when the Aurora Borealis appeared in the northern horizon.” © P-M Heden