Kay Speed, age 10, of Jackson, Miss 

Countless meteors collide with the earth every day and moat of these little apace travelers are burned to ashes as they fall through the air  Only the few which are big enough to survive and reach the ground are called meteorites  Before the collision, the meteor may have been traveling at 26 miles a second through empty space  Our thin atmosphere acts like sudden brakes on a speeding car,

The falling meteor cuts through the air, rubbing and crashing into its molecules of gas  This is friction and friction makes heat, It is heat from friction which lights a match  The heat from friction between the air and the falling meteor is usually great enough to burn the little space traveler to ashes