Meteor Facts

Meteor Facts Infographics

The National Weather Service bounces radio signals off the ionized trails left by meteors.

This is also known as Meteor Burst Communication or Meteor Scatter Communications. This is used to collect data from automated weather stations as well as occasional data from respective US government agencies. 

Most meteors scatter communications are conducted between radio stations which are engaged in a particular schedule of transmission and reception periods. Many other countries and locations in the United States use similar methods of data collecting in remote areas. 

Meteorites are solid particles that fall into the Earth's surface from space.

This is often a solid piece of debris from foreign objects such as comets, asteroids, or even meteoroids. These are considered as meteorites if they remain intact from its passage from outer space through the atmosphere to the surface of a planet or moon. 

Many meteorites are said to originate from asteroids.

It can be difficult at times to distinguish a meteorite from a regular Earth rock simply just by its looks alone. Although in certain areas of the world, distinguishing differences between the two become more simple. 

For example, desert rocks and dark meteoroids stand out very clearly from one another. Similar meteorites can also be easier to spot in locations with colder weather and frozen plains. 

Most known asteroids in our solar system are located between Jupiter and Mars.

Research has found that the main meteor belt resides and orbits between the two planets. This main asteroid belt is found to be more than two and a half times as far as the Earth is from the sun. 

The current known asteroid count on this orbit is 840,170.

Meteors are solids that enter the Earth's atmosphere but have not reached its surface.

Meteors come in a range of sizes. These can be as small as a dust particle we see under sunlight, or as big as a house. The term meteor also comes from the Greek word, meteoron. 

This translates to a phenomenon in the sky. The Greeks used this term to define the streaks of light in the sky when meteors would fall into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Barringer meteorite is one of the most famous meteorites due to the crater it left behind.

The crater this meteorite created measured approximately 37 km east of Flagstaff and around 18 miles west of Winslow. The meteor crater lies at an elevation of 5,640 ft above sea level. 

This crater is also around 3,900 ft in diameter and 560 ft deep. 

The largest single meteorite found on Earth is the Hoba Meteor.

This meteorite measures at 9ft by 9ft by 3ft. The Hoba meteor is short for Hoba West and lies on a farm of the same name. 

This meteorite had been uncovered but never moved from its impact due to its large mass. It is measured to be more than 60 tonnes. 

This meteorite is famous for being the largest one still intact after collision. It is also the largest naturally occurring piece of iron known on the Earth’s surface.

The name Hoba comes from the Khoekhoegowab word which means gift. 

Scientists have discovered an approximate total of 40 meteorite craters that span larger than 12 miles in diameter.

Around a hundred and twenty impact craters have also been identified on Earth in total. The most recent impact for a crater this big was last reported in 1908.

This was reported to have occurred in an uninhabited area of western Siberia that is known as Tunguska. The impactor was about 60 meters in diameter and consists of many loose pieces.

Meteoroids often vary in size but are usually too small for people to notice falling.

These meteorites also more commonly fall into bodies of water and are usually never recovered or studied. Research suggests that up to three hundred tons of space dust, including micrometeorites, fall to the Earth every day. 

While hundreds may fall from outer space daily, it is about 90-95% safe. This is because most meteors completely burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface of the planet.

Meteoroids, meteorites, and meteors are all different classifications that state their current position.

A meteoroid is made up of smaller rocks or particles that are in orbit around the sun. A meteor is called such only if it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes. 

This is what people often call a shooting star. A meteorite is a small asteroid that has survived its passage through the planet’s atmosphere. 

This is considered a meteorite if it passes this stage and lands on the planet’s surface.

Meteors are caused by the friction of air particles and pressure as it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

Meteor showers occur when the planet is in orbit around the sun and it passes through debris leftover from the disintegration of other comets. Most of these comets orbits are a bit more elongated compared to the orbit of the sun. 

The length of the light trail depends on the meteoroids elements and dimension.

The bright trail of light is caused by the meteoroid during its atmospheric flight. As the meteoroid falls, it begins to burn and intensifies as it falls. 

This process is called adiabatic compression. The visible tail can go up to over 150 million km in length. 

The tail also always streams in the opposite direction from the sun.

A meteoroid's tail light can last as short as a few seconds and as long as 30 minutes.

However, streams of debris left behind in space can last for days, or sometimes even weeks. 

When a meteoroid is greater than 10 meters in diameter, it is then classified as an asteroid.

Asteroids are rocky forms that orbit around the sun. However, they cannot be called planets because of their small sizes. 

There are millions of asteroids orbiting outer space and despite their small size, they can be dangerous if it crashes into our planet. In total, the mass of all asteroids is less than that of the Earth’s moon. 

Most scientists theorize that dinosaurs became extinct due to a giant meteor crash.

The Chicxulub crater is what scientists rely on for evidence to support this theory. The impact specifies that it had a diameter of 11-81 km and caused an energy blast measuring up to 21-921 billion Hiroshima bombs worth. 

This impact is what is believed to have killed all living organisms such as dinosaurs and plants during prehistoric times.