A meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of interplanetary debris burns

up as it passes through our

atmosphere. "Meteor" refers to the flash of light caused by the debris, not the debris itself.
The debris is called a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a piece of interplanetary matter that is smaller than a kilometer and frequently only
millimeters in size. Most meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the
planet's surface. In 1961, the International Astronomical Union defined a meteoroid as "a solid object moving in interplanetary space,
of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom"
If any part of a meteoroid survives the fall through the atmosphere and lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite. Although the vast
majority of meteorites are very small, their size can range from about a fraction of a gram (the size of a pebble) to 100 kilograms (220
lbs) or more (the size of a huge, life-destroying boulder).
METEOR
Meteors appear when centimeter-sized meteoroids travelling at least 11 km/sec, but more usually 30 to 55 km/sec, strike the Earth's
atmosphere. The maximum speed is 72 km/sec. The meteoroid's kinetic energy of motion converts into heat, vaporizing the meteoroid
at heights above 60 km. The hot vapor trail is what we see as a meteor. The vaporized material may reach temperatures of 1,000 to
2,000 Kelvins. The period during which the meteor flashes is called incandescent flight. The period after the light phenomena cease
is called dark flight. Meteorites the size of a golf ball (two or three centimeters) or larger vaporize in exceptionally brilliant flashes
called fireballs or bolides. These may also produce a variety of sounds.
Meteor Showers and Meteor Storms
You can see five or six meteors each hour from any given vantage point on Earth when atmospheric conditions allow. Up to 25 million
meteors arrive each day, dropping about 100 tons of material. Most meteors are composed of debris left behind by comets as they
orbit the Sun. A meteor shower occurs when the Earth intersects a comet's path and moves through the stream of debris and dust
emitted by the comet. The meteors in a shower appear to originate from one area of the sky called the radiant. The meteor shower is
usually named after the constellation in which the radiant lies. Meteor showers occurs at the same time each year. Common meteor
showers result in ten to fifty meteors per hour. Typically the best time to observe is in the early morning.
Occasionally the Earth passes through an unusually heavy concentration of cometary debris resulting in a meteor storm. Hundreds or
even thousands of meteors may flash each hour. One of the historically most prominent meteor storms, the Leonid storm, occurs at
about thirty-three year intervals. The Leonid shower normally produces about ten meteors per hour. When they storm, the Leonids can
produce the equivalent of over one hundred thousand meteors per hour for a short period.
Some Prominent Meteor Showers

Name

Parent

Date of
Maximum

Radiant

Maximum
Meteors Per
Hour

Storms

Draconids

Comet
PonsWinnecke

June 30

Draco, near
handle of
Big Dipper

10-100

No

Geminids

3200
Phaeton

December 14

Gemini

58

No

Leonids

P/TempleTuttle

November 17

Leo

10, except for

storms

About every 33 years

Lyrids

Comet
Thatcher

April 22

Lyra, near
Vega

15

No

Orionids

P/Halley

October 21

Orion

30

No

Perseids

Comet
1862 III

August 12

Perseus

50-100

No

Quadrantids

(unknown
)

January 4

Bootes

110

No

Taurids

Comet
Encke

November 5

Taurus, near
Pleiades

10, many fireballs

Yes, irregularly

METEORITES
Meteoroids the size of a fist or larger may survive the trip through the atmosphere to land on the Earth's surface. They are then known
as meteorites. A meteorite located after a witnessed descent is called a fall. A meteorite from an unwitnessed descent is called a find.
Meteorites are usually named for a post office or another geographic landmark close to the place where the meteorite was found. The
name of the meteorite can refer to either a specimen of the meteorite itself or to the locality in which it was found.
Types Of Meteorites
Meteorites form three main groups based upon their composition.
Types of Meteorites
Type

Achondrite

Stony
Carbonaceou
s Chondrite

Chondrite

Iron

Stony Iron

Composition

Similar to terrestrial
basalts. Some may be
fragments of the Moon or
Mars.

Example

Mount
Egerton,
Australia
(AUB)

Description

In some stony meteorites called achondrites the

chondrules have been partially or completely destroyed
by metamorphic processes. This took substantial time
and pressure. Such meteorites must be fragments of the
interior of larger bodies on which the weight of the
overlying rock created enough pressure to obliterate the
chondrules. About 7% of recovered stony meteorites are
achondrites.

Murchison
, Australia
(CM2)

Carbonaceous Chondrites are essentially just pieces of

chondrules stuck together. They are very black because
of their high carbon content. Some of their mineral grains
predate the solar system -- probably fragments blown out
from distant stars that became supernovae. Carbonaceous
chondrites also contain water and amino acids. Some
types of carbonaceous chondrites may be cometary
material. The building blocks of life on Earth may have
been seeded by comets and carbonaceous meteorites
early in Earth's history.

Similar to the mantles

and crusts of the
terrestrial planets. Most
meteorites are chondrites.

Salaices
(H4)

Chondrites are the most common type of stony

meteorite. About 86% of all recovered stony meteorites
are chondrites. Chondrites are composed of small
spherical chondrules. Chondrules are millimeter to
centimeter sized glassy mineral spheres. Chondrules are
composed of silicate material that has melted and then
resolidified. Chondrules formed early in solar system
history. They were the most primitive "building blocks"
of the solar system. Over time chondrules accreted to
form larger and larger objects including asteroids, moons,
and planets.

Primarily iron and nickel.

Similar to type M
asteroids.

SikhoteAlin,
Russia
(IIB)

Iron meteorites are probably what most people picture

as "typical" meteorites. Iron meteorites consist almost
entirely of a mixture of metallic nickel and iron. They are
easier to spot on the ground because their highly
unoxidized iron content stands out from background
rocks.

Similar to the Sun with

some volatiles depleted.
Similar to type C
asteroids. Some may be
cometary fragments.

Mixture of iron and stony

material. Similar to type
S asteroids.

Vaca
Muerta,
Altacama,
Chile
(MES)

Stony Iron meteorites are the rarest type of meteorite,

making up about 1 to 2% of all recovered meteorites.
Stony Iron meteorites consist of a mixture of rocky
silicates and metallic nickel/iron. There are two main
groups of stony iron meteorites. Pallasites are composed
of olivine crystals set in a nickel-iron matrix. They
probably formed in the boundary layer between the iron

core and the stony mantle of an asteroid. Pallasites are

very popular as jewelry when cut and polished.
Mesosiderites are conposed of pyroxene, olivine,
plagioclase, and metal grains. They probably formed
when a metal-rich asteroid collided with a silicate-rich
asteroid.

10 Need-to-Know Things About Meteors and Meteorites:

1. Meteoroids become meteors -- or shooting stars -- when they interact with a planet's atmosphere and
cause a streak of light in the sky. Debris that makes it to the surface of a planet from meteoroids are
called meteorites.
2. Meteorites may vary in size from tiny grains to large boulders. One of the largest meteorite found on
Earth is the Hoba meteorite from southwest Africa, which weighs roughly 54,000 kg (119,000 pounds).
3. Meteor showers are usually named after a star or constellation which is close to the radiant (the position
from which the meteor appears to come).
4. Meteors and meteorites begin as meteoroids, which are little chunks of rock and debris in space.
5. Most meteorites are either iron, stony or stony-iron.
6. Meteorites may look very much like Earth rocks, or they may have a burned appearance. Some may
have depressioned (thumbprint-like), roughened or smooth exteriors.
7. Many of the meteor showers are associated with comets. The Leonids are associated with comet TempelTuttle; Aquarids and Orionids with comet Halley, and the Taurids with comet Encke.
8. When comets come around the sun, they leave a dusty trail. Every year the Earth passes through the
comet trails, which allows the debris to enter our atmosphere where it burns up and creates fiery and
colorful streaks (meteors) in the sky.
9. Leonid MAC (an airborne mission that took flight during the years 1998 - 2002) studied the interaction
of meteoroids with the Earth's atmosphere.
10. Meteoroids, meteors and meteorites cannot support life. However, they may have provided the Earth
with a source of amino acids: the building blocks of life.
SIGNIFICANT DATES

4.55 billion years ago Formation age of most meteorites, taken to be the age of the solar system.

65 million years ago Chicxulub impact that leads to the death of 75 percent of the animals on Earth, including
the dinosaurs.

50,000 years Age of Barringer Meteorite Crater in Arizona.

1478 B.C. First recorded observation of meteors.

1794 A.D. Ernst Friedrick Chladni publishes the first book on meteorites. 1908 (Tunguska), 1947 (Sikote

Alin), 1969 (Allende and Murchison),

1976 (Jilin) Important 20th-century meteorite falls.1969 Discovery of meteorites in a small area of
Antarctica leads to annual expeditions by U.S. and Japanese teams.

19821983 Meteorites from the Moon and Mars are identified in Antarctic collections.

1996 A team of NASA scientists suggests that martian meteorite ALH84001 may contain evidence of
microfossils from Mars, a still-controversial claim.

2005 NASAs Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity finds a basketball-size ironnickel meteorite on
Mars.

2009 Opportunity finds another, much larger and heavier, ironnickel meteorite, estimated to be 10
times as massive as the first meteorite the rover discovered.