4: Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites

Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites are ice and rock chunks in space which are the remains of asteroids and comet debris. When a large number of meteors originate from one point, It is known as a meteor shower.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN METEORS, METEOROIDS AND METEORITES.
What people may confuse a lot is the difference between Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites. So let's learn about their differences now:


Meteoroids are called meteors or shooting stars when they enter Earth's atmosphere. When a meteor survives the atmosphere and falls on the ground, it is known as a meteorite. 

TYPES OF METEORITES
Three major types of meteorites are:
•Irons meteors:
Irons meteors are the meteors which mostly contain iron are their main compound.
•Stonys:
Stony Meteors are the meteors which mostly contain Silcate (Rock forming minerals) as their main compound.
•Stony-irons:
Stony-Irons are the meteors which contain iron as well as Silcate (Rock forming minerals) as their main compound.


Meteorite impacts in history
There have been many meteor impacts in history. So let's look at how the earth survived them.
•Chicxulub Impactor causing Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan Peninsula. This meteorite is the cause of the extinction of dinosaurs. We can no more see this crater or the original meteorite on earth's surface as it is burried deep into the earth. This is because this impact happened many many years ago.

•Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. Its size is approximately 1 kilometer across.
Fun fact
Meteors of total weight 13 tons approx fall every day on Earth's surface

Coming up next: Kuiper Belt

From space enthusiast: 
Aashni





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