Question

What is the reason behind the glowing of meteors?

Answer 1

Meteors glow due to the ablation, or the melting/evaporation of material.

Explanation:

As the meteor enters the earth’s atmosphere, it immediately starts to disintegrate due to compressive heating and ablation. Compressive heating occurs when the air in front of an object is rapidly squeezed, generating heat. As a rule of thumb, you start to feel this effect at speeds upwards of Mach 2. Because the meteor is traveling so fast, the compressed air shockwave reaches upwards of thousands of degrees Celsius. This heat blasts the exposed surface of the meteor, exposing a new layer; ther process repeats. This thermal activity generates the brief light we see.