Meteors are chunks of rock or metal floating out in space. Occasionally, a meteor enters the earth's atmosphere. Caught by the pull of gravity, the meteors plunge toward earth. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere before they hit the ground. Because the glow of their burning makes them visible, people often call them "shooting stars."
Sometimes meteors actually hit the earth. One crashed in the Shandung province of China over 1,300 years ago. It weighed four tons and was shaped like an ox. Because the ancient Chinese regarded the stone as holy and worshiped it, they built a temple nearby. Only recently have researchers determined that the ox-shaped rock was a meteor.