Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a trail of dust from asteroids or comets, the dust burns up in Earth's atmosphere resulting in shooting stars.

Many ancient observers assumed (correctly, to some extent) that shooting stars were atmospheric phenomena. But meteors, of course, don’t actually. in the air. We now know they come from space.

The phrase falling stars, or shooting stars as they are called in different regions, describes meteors or other pieces of matter that burn up and disintegrate as they hit the Earth’s surface and pass through it. It is important to understand the difference between the term meteor and meteorite.

Shooting stars are caused by small pieces of space debris, such as dust or rocks, that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. The friction from the Earth’s atmosphere causes the debris to heat up and glow, creating the streak of light that we see in the sky.

Meteors are streaks of light, usually lasting just a few seconds, which people occasionally see in the night sky. They are sometimes called "shooting stars" or "falling stars", though they are not stars at all. Meteors are caused by the entry of small pieces of rock, dust, or metal from space into the atmosphere at extremely high speeds.