What is a meteor, also known as a 'shooting star'?

Have you ever seen a shooting star? Hundreds of people in Scotland and Northern Ireland have reported witnessing a "fireball" on Wednesday night.

The UK Meteor Network said it began receiving reports on Wednesday evening, with people sending in videos of a bright light shooting across the dark sky.

Scientists are using the footage that has been sent to try and work out what it is and where it came from.

The Meteor Network is a group made up of "civilian scientists" - people who get involved in science as a hobby - and who keep track of potential meteor sightings across the UK.

Some people have been sending them recordings taken on their doorbell cameras, while others took videos on their phone by filming from their garden.

It's not yet known if the object burned up in the atmosphere, or eventually landed although some think it could likely have landed in the sea south of the Hebrides, islands off the west coast of Scotland.

Steve Owens, astronomer and science communicator at the Glasgow Science Centre, said the sighting was "incredible".

He told the BBC: "Normally if you see a meteor or a shooting star, they are just tiny little streaks of light lasting a fraction of a second but this one was streaking across the sky for at least ten seconds probably longer.

What is a shooting star?

A shooting star is also often called a fireball, and is the same as a meteor. So how do they come about?

Asteroids are rocks which orbit the sun, and when a small part of one breaks off we have what you call a meteorite.

When a meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere, it becomes known as a meteor and often makes a spectacular appearance as it burns up and creates a streaking light through the sky.

You might know this as a shooting star - but remember it isn't actually a star!

Meteors don't always burn up either, and something arrive on earth as a giant lump of rock.

Some meteorites don't turn into meteors, and instead land on earth

They are also different to comets, which are rocks made up of ice and dust. They orbit the sun like asteroids, but when they get closer to the sun, they burn up due to the heat.

Because they get so bright, you can see a comet even when it's very far from earth.

What this a shooting star or something else?

Space debris can be made form abandoned satellites

Space Debris (also known as space junk) is made up of manmade objects left in space. This could be caused by parts of rockets falling off, and can cause a risk to other spacecraft.

It can often look similar to a shooting fall because if it enters the earth's atmosphere, it burns up in the same way as a meteorite.

Kevin Morgan from the network told BBC Scotland that the speed it was travelling at could indicate that the sight was of space junk rather than a shooting star.

But he added: "It is no less exciting and really encouraging that so many people have reported and shared images that they have."