We just learned about how meteoroids become meteors or shooting stars when they get close to a planet.
They burn up because of a planet's atmosphere.
The atmosphere is the air up in our sky!
Just think about how a strong wind feels blowing on your face.
That wind is maybe blowing at 20 miles per hour.
Now imagine that wind blowing at 100,000 miles per hour!
That's how fast some meteors travel when they enter Earth's atmosphere,
and they burn up because they're going so fast they can't handle that kind of wind.
(from: wikipedia - atmosphere)
