Shooting stars are not actually stars, but bits of dirt and dust, that burn up in our atmosphere. Lots of things create the dirt. For example, when a comet comes near the sun, they begin to melt and pieces break off the object. They are left floating in space. When Earth passes through these bits of dirt, they get into our atmosphere, where they burn. They are called meteors. So-called shooting stars or falling stars are meteors, debris that hits Earth's atmosphere and burn as they fall towards it. As this happens they leave a brief trail of light giving it the appearance of a star, but stars do not in fact fall to Earth. Meteors can be seen on any night, but at certain times of year we pass through dirtier areas of space and more debris gets into our atmosphere and we see more meteors tha