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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There Are 6 Types Of Quark

Image
Fact of the day: There are 6 types of quark. Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, and Bottom Quarks. The Strong Nuclear Force is responsible for holding together atomic nuclei to make Hadron particles (Baryons and Mesons). This force uses Gluons (the boson particle) to hold Quarks together. It holds together two Up Quarks and a Down Quark to make a Proton. It holds together two Down Quarks and an Up Quark to create a Neutron. To make a Meson, it holds together two quarks. The study of the interaction between Quarks and Gluons is called Quantum Chromodynamics. The Strong Nuclear Force also binds protons and neutrons to each other, to create an atomic nucleus. However, it does not use Gluons to transfer this, it uses Pions, which are a type of Meson. (above) The interaction of a Proton and a Neutron via a Pion. The Strong Nuclear Force is 137 times stronger than the Electromagnetic Force, 1 million times stronger than the Weak Nuclear Force, and  10 38  times stronger...
Read more

The Dwarf Planet Eris Takes 558 Earth Years To Orbit The Sun

Image
Fact of the day: The dwarf planet Eris takes 558 Earth years to orbit the sun. Most dwarf planets are trans-neptunian objects, but some can orbit further inwards, such as Ceres, which orbits in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and mars. Most of the trans-neptunian dwarf planets have highly elliptical orbits, like Eris. The most famous of the dwarf planets is Pluto, as it was previously classified as a planet, but is now classified as a dwarf planet because it did not meet the criteria needed for it to be classified as a planet. These are the criteria: • The object must be in orbit around the sun. • The object has to be massive enough for it own gravity to form it into a round shape. • The object must have cleared the area in its orbit (anything that meets the above criteria but not this one is classified as a dwarf planet). There are five main dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. Ceres Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is around 9...
Read more

There Are 3 Main Types Of Radioactive Decay

Image
Fact of the day: There are 3 main types of radioactive decay,  α  (alpha),  β  (beta),  γ  (gamma). Radioactive decay is the decay of an atomic nucleus to become another element. For example, Uranium-328 decays via  α  decay into Thorium-234. The weak nuclear force is the weakest of the four fundamental forces. The weak nuclear force is mainly responsible for breaking things apart than holding things together. This force is responsible for  β  decay. β  decay is when in an unstable atomic nucleus, a neutron changes one of its down quarks into an up quark (making a proton), and then emits a W- boson. The W- boson then decays into an electron and an electron antineutrino. (above) This is a Feynman diagram of  β  decay, with the neutron (n) changing one of its quarks from an up quark (u) to a down quark (d) creating a proton (p). In the process a W-  (W-) boson is emitted, which then decays into an electron an...
Read more