Over 15000 Tonnes Of Meteorites Fall to Earth Each Year

Fact of the day: Over 15000 tonnes of meteorites fall to Earth each year.

Meteors can be the most remarkable sight when viewed at night in a meteor shower. The bright streaks across the sky can be absolutely spectacular.

A meteoroid is a rocky or metallic object that could enter the Earth's atmosphere to become a meteor, which can range from the size of grains of sand to one meter across.
A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earths atmosphere, and has started to burn up. This incredibly intense friction, or air resistance, usually ends up melting and burning the meteor and then it eventually disintegrates.
A meteorite is a meteor that makes it to the surface of our planet.

Meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites are usually fragments of various comets and asteroids that happen to be in the Earth's path.

(below)* The 60 tonne Hoba meteorite. This landed in Namibia and is the largest intact meteorite known.


* Author of the image attribution:
By No machine-readable author provided. Calips assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1093677

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