"Shooting star" is simply a colloquial expression for a meteor. Some meteors are quite bright (for example some Taurids can even cast shadows and leave bright trails). Some look like "flashbulbs" going off in the sky. Some are faint. Some move very fast; others are slow. All these are meteors! Most mind-bending of all, the light we see is the air being ionized around a very fast-moving particle (typically the size of a grain of sand). The molecules of the air are stripped of electrons which releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of light. Believe it or not, it's this light, not the actual "material" of dust or pebble moving through the sky that we we witness as a meteor. Only rarely is a particle large enough to make it all the way to earth.
"Shooting star" is simply a colloquial expression for a meteor. Some meteors are quite bright (for example some Taurids can even cast shadows and leave bright trails). Some look like "flashbulbs" going off in the sky. Some are faint. Some move very fast; others are slow. All these are meteors! Most mind-bending of all, the light we see is the air being ionized around a very fast-moving particle (typically the size of a grain of sand). The molecules of the air are stripped of electrons which releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of light. Believe it or not, it's this light, not the actual "material" of dust or pebble moving through the sky that we we witness as a meteor. Only rarely is a particle large enough to make it all the way to earth.