Shooting stars are very common. Rock from space regularly enters the Earth's atmosphere, with around one million shooting stars occurring every day around the world. To try to see a shooting star, the sky should ideally be clear. The best way to see one is to stare at one point of the sky for around 20 minutes.

So, how can you tell the difference? The general rule-of-thumb is that natural meteor reentries happen quickly and typically last less than a few seconds while human-made reentries happen slowly, and typically can last 20  90 seconds or more.