Paula Panlaqui

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 A meteoroid is….

A meteorite is.…

3 A meteor is….
TERMINOLOGIES
 Meteoroid:
 Small pieces or chunk of debris (usually parts of comets
or asteroids) in the Solar System that are on a
collision course with the Earth.
 Meteor:
 A meteoroid that enters Earth's (or another body's)
atmosphere. Also known as the “shooting star”.
 Meteorite:
 A meteor that survives impact and reaches the
ground of Earth.
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METEOROID
 ORIGIN
 Comets
 Asteroids
 Moon
 Mars

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METEOR
 Also known as the “shooting star”.
 Most meteors are tiny specks of dust
or smaller than a grain.
 Larger meteors produce FIREBALLS
which is brighter than planet Venus.
 Some meteors explode in the
9 atmosphere and called BOLIDE.
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 The track of the meteor in this image is
only about 0.05 inches long. The meteoroid
itself has a diameter of only about 1/1000 of
an inch!!!!
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METEORITE
 Chunks of rock or iron-nickel that fall to
Earth from space
 Usually named after the place where they
fall

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HOW DO METEORITES LOOK LIKE?

Vesta
Meteorite from Mars

Allen Hills
(Moon)

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 SPHERULES
• Tiny droplets from space
• Formed by melting and re-solidification after impacts

Spherule from Moon Spherule

Collected by Apollo 11 astronauts from bottom of the Indian Ocean
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 Hoba Meteorite, Namibia
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 How dangerous are meteorites?
Impact Frequency
Size Frequency Destruction Area
Pea 10/ hour
Walnut 1/ hour
Grapefruit 1/ 10 hours
Basketball 1/ month
50 meters 1/ century New York City
1 kilometer 1/ 100,000 years Virginia
2 kilometers 1/ 500,000 years France
1017kilometers 1/ 100 million years World-Wide?
 Very large meteorites vaporize when they hit
ground, form big craters
 Sometimes
18 small pieces are found around crater
The Asteroid and the Dinosaur
It has been proposed that 65 million years ago
in what is now Yucatan, the impact at a velocity
of 11 km/second of a 10-kilometer wide asteroid
threw huge amounts of matter into the
atmosphere. This created months of darkness
(interfering with photosynthesis) and much
cooler temperatures globally, and the resulting
harsh conditions led to the extinction of many
species, including the last of the dinosaurs.
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