Facts About Meteors and Meteorites

A meteorite is a large particle from outer space that lands on Earth. They range in size from a grain of sand on up. Around 30 thousand meteorites have been recovered in recorded history; about 600 of them are made primarily of metal, and the rest are made primarily of rock. A meteor is an object from outer space that enters Earth’s atmosphere, but does not land on Earth. Instead, the particle burns up in the atmosphere, leaving a short-lived, glowing trail that traces part of its path through the sky. If a meteor is large enough to reach Earth, we call it a meteorite.

Sources of Meteors and Meteorites

Most meteors, especially those that fall during meteor showers, are the tiny remnants of comets left in Earth’s orbital path over many, many years. Most meteorites, which are generally larger than meteors, are pieces of asteroids and comets that somehow came apart from their parent bodies—perhaps from a collision with another body—and orbited in the solar system until they collided with Earth.

Meteor Showers

Every Year the Perseid meteor shower happens in August, as Earth travels through the remnant tail of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. In November, when earth moves through the remnants of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, it causes Leonid meteor shower.

Types of Meteorites

There are two main categories of meteorites: stony and metallic.

• Each category is further subdivided into more detailed groups with similar characteristics.
• Vestoids, for example, are all thought to have come from the asteroid Vesta, where, long ago, a powerful collision created shattered bits of Vesta that have been orbiting the solar system ever since.
• Chondrites are one kind of stony meteorite; they are often the oldest meteorites.
• Another category, the pallasites, have fascinating mixtures of stony and metallic material. Pallasites probably originated from boundary areas in larger asteroids, where rocky mantles were in physical contact with metallic cores.