01
METEOROIDS
Meteoroid is the term we use when the rocks that varies in size from dust grains to small asteroids, are in the space. They are also called as “space rocks”. Some of them come from asteroids, others come from comets, and some even come from other planets and Moon! Nonetheless, most of the meteoroids are pieces of the broken or blasted larger bodies. In addition to this, meteoroids can either be rocky or metallic or both rocky and metallic.
Meteoroids, just like asteroids, comets, and planets, they orbit the sun among the rocky inner planets, as well as the gas giants that make up the outer planets. The tiny meteoroids are called micrometeoroids and both of them are enormously common throughout the solar system. Diverse meteoroids travel around the sun in different orbits and at different speeds. 42 km/s (26 miles) is the speed of the fastest meteoroids that travel through the solar system.
Oxygen and silicon (silicate) as well as other heavier metals such as iron and nickel are what make up most of the meteoroids. Meteoroids that are dense and massive are those iron and nickel-iron meteoroids. On the other hand, meteoroids that are more fragile and lighter are those stony ones.
Many meteoroids are formed from the collision of asteroids, which orbit the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter in a region called the asteroid belt. As asteroids smash into each other, they produce crumbly debris—meteoroids. The force of the asteroid collision can throw the meteoroid debris—and sometimes the asteroids themselves—out of their regular orbit. This can put the meteoroids on a collision course with a planet or moon.
02
METEORS
The moment that a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of the Earth, or other planet’s atmosphere just like that of Mars, with the very high speed which causes them to be burned up, they are called as METEORS. Have you even wished in what we call as the “shooting star”? When we say shooting star, we are actually pertaining to the meteors. They are so bright and sometimes, they can even appear brighter than Venus. When we see “shooting stars” we can see as if they have a tail with them and they are like fireballs. Yes, they are meteors! According to the scientists, the estimated amount of meteoritic material that falls on our planet each day is about 48.5 tons (44 kg).
Have you ever wondered and curious about meteor shower? Well, when there are numerous meteors appear, you are actually watching a meteor shower. This is because some meteors per hour can usually be observed on any given night. Several meteor showers appear annually or at regular intervals as the Earth passes through the trail of dusty debris left by a comet (and, in a few cases, asteroids).
03
METEORITES
After being burned up, travelling like a fireball, if the meteoroid survives, as soon as it landed or crashed into the ground, it is now called as METEORITE. This is the term we use to the fragment of rock or iron that came from the outer space and they are usually an asteroid or a meteoroid. They are believed to be originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They may also range in size from less than a gram to greater than 60 tons.
You might be asking right now that, “Why do we even need to know about meteorites? What’s the essence of learning it?” Well, let me tell you that meteorites that fall to our planet Earth, they represent some of the original, various materials that shaped planets billions of years ago. Studying meteorites will be a big help in order for us, humans, to know the early conditions and processes in the history of the solar system such as the age and composition of different planetary building blocks, the temperatures achieved at the surfaces and interiors of asteroids, and the degree to which materials were shocked by impacts in the past.
