<p>Shooting stars are indeed meteors falling down, but consider this: meteors which are part of a meteor shower actually appear to come from a point in the sky called the <em>radiant point</em>:
<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;source=imgres&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiItuubkYLgAhWZV30KHV-9Dn8QjRx6BAgBEAU&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRadiant_(meteor_shower)&amp;psig=AOvVaw0lP8KGKheVCSl9wC0P6qp_&amp;ust=1548272112613916" rel="nofollow noreferrer">google image</a></p>

<p>Since you're looking upwards, you may be looking straight at the radiant point, and therefore the meteors are 'radiating' away from that point in all directions; not only 'downwards' towards the horizon, but 'upwards' from your point of view.</p>

<p>You can see that, even for a meteor which is not part of a shower, it's just as likely for a meteor to be going 'upwards' across the sky, as it is to be going 'downwards'.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-22T19:38:37.157Z
2019-01-22T19:38:37.157Z
Jim421616
<p>Shooting stars are actually meteors falling down on the surface of earth. How come some of them appear shooting up and not down?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-21T11:14:36.333Z
Related: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/1866/do-meteorites-streak-across-the-sky-in-the-same-direction Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_(meteor_shower)
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-21T18:37:57.917Z
Perspective.  It's all about viewing angle and lack of altitude reference.
Carl Witthoft
<observational-astronomy>
Meteor shower shooting stars
charwalk
# Meteor shower shooting stars

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-01-21)

Shooting stars are actually meteors falling down on the surface of earth. How come some of them appear shooting up and not down?

**Tags:** observational-astronomy

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/1866/do-meteorites-streak-across-the-sky-in-the-same-direction Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_(meteor_shower)  
> **username_2**: Perspective.  It's all about viewing angle and lack of altitude reference.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-01-22. Score: 1

Shooting stars are indeed meteors falling down, but consider this: meteors which are part of a meteor shower actually appear to come from a point in the sky called the *radiant point*:
[google image](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=imgres&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiItuubkYLgAhWZV30KHV-9Dn8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRadiant_(meteor_shower)&psig=AOvVaw0lP8KGKheVCSl9wC0P6qp_&ust=1548272112613916)

Since you're looking upwards, you may be looking straight at the radiant point, and therefore the meteors are 'radiating' away from that point in all directions; not only 'downwards' towards the horizon, but 'upwards' from your point of view.

You can see that, even for a meteor which is not part of a shower, it's just as likely for a meteor to be going 'upwards' across the sky, as it is to be going 'downwards'.


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