A shooting star is not a star but a small piece of rock or dust from space burning up in Earth's atmosphere.

The term 'shooting star' is a misnomer. What we see is a meteoroid — a bit of rock or dust in space, ranging from sand-grain size to a small pebble — hitting Earth's atmosphere at high speed. The friction with air molecules heats it to incandescence, creating a brief streak of light. That streak is technically called a meteor. The object itself is tiny. Most are no bigger than a grain of sand. They vaporize completely before reaching the ground.