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How do meteoroids differ from meteors and meteorites? how Do meteorites change life on Earth? And where did they come from The universe? Read a new exciting selection of meteorites!
1. Every day, about four billion falls on our planet meteoroids. Meteoroids are celestial objects of much smaller larger than asteroids, but still larger than interplanetary dust. However, most of them are too small to cause the Earth. harm.
2. Throughout history, we have counted about 24,000 fallen to Earth meteorites. Their weight is from several grams to several tons
3. In one day, 5-6 tons of meteorites fall on our planet, then There are approximately 2,000 tons of meteorites per year.
4. Where did all these objects come from: meteoroids, asteroids, meteorites? According to the Big Bang Theory – generally accepted cosmological model of the origin of the universe – 13 billion years ago there was an explosion, which resulted in cosmic dust, particles of which under the influence of gravity gradually “stick together” in planets, stars and smaller celestial bodies.
5. The bulk of the interplanetary matter present in The solar system is concentrated in the asteroid belt, which located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, at a distance of 2.5-3 AE (astronomical units. 1 AE is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, 150 million km).
6. From time to time, individual objects fly out of the belt asteroids. They crush, colliding with each other, and small fragments drift, from time to time falling into the field of earth’s gravity and falling to its surface in the form of meteoroids.
7. Meteoroids, entering the atmosphere, become meteors. Before Earth’s surface does not reach meteors, burning in the atmosphere. Exactly we see them when we observe “shooting stars.”
8. Meteoroids that did not burn in the atmosphere and reached the Earth, called meteorites.
9. Meteorites fall on people, but very rarely, about 1 time per 180 years
10. In cinema, meteorites fall, blazing spectacularly on the fly and exploding upon reaching Earth, but for that it is a movie. In life they fall without any special effects.
11. It is believed that it is dangerous to touch a fallen meteorite due to of the fact that passing through the atmosphere, celestial bodies repent of friction. But the already fallen meteorite is not hot at all. In the atmosphere he it ignites, but after passing most of the way, it begins to cool. On the an altitude of 10-15 km from the Earth’s surface, the meteorite is no longer hot, but just warm.
12. However, very large meteorites that hit the Earth once every a hundred thousand years, do not burn out in the atmosphere and do not even have time to really to brake. They crash into the surface of our planet on space velocity, causing an explosion and the formation of craters. For the whole the history of the earth got only a few so large meteorites.
13. Most often, meteorites fall on the territory of Antarctica. On her at least 700,000 meteorites are already lying around. There is the most large meteorite accumulation on one surface area Of the earth.
14. Earth collides with a relatively large celestial body (at least 50 meters in diameter), on average, every hundred years. Usually these attacks fall on the oceans.
15. The moon has no atmosphere, so meteorites fall on it much more often. Some of them explode, leaving deep craters. The largest of the craters, called Apollo, has more than 500 km across.
A source
Time Universe Gravity Life
