What makes a bright star-like blink in the night sky, a meteor?

Last night I was looking west at the night sky and saw a blink – like a bright star (brighter than other stars) for just an instant. The sky was clear and there was no aircraft there and no further blinks.

I also saw that once while watching the meteor showers last week, and I have seen it before… I notice that in all cases I was facing west, but I face west a lot ( ;-) ). Usually meteors seem to appear as streaks of moving light, though, not a pinpoint blink.

Any notions what these probably are? Is it just what smaller meteors look like because they burn up even faster? Or space junk hitting the atmosphere because it has lower lateral velocity? Something else?