{"id":1570,"date":"2017-10-19T14:48:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.popastro.com\/main_spa1\/meteor\/?page_id=1570"},"modified":"2020-01-11T21:27:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T21:27:40","slug":"amazing-but-true","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.popastro.com\/meteor\/amazing-but-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing but true"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some surprising facts about meteors (shooting stars) and fireballs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>meteors<\/strong>\u00a0take their name from\u00a0<strong><em>meteorology\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>&#8211; the study of the weather. This name arose because until a couple of centuries ago the prevailing scientific view was that meteors were purely atmospheric phenomena &#8230; and nothing to do with anything entering the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere from space. They were wrong !<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>most\u00a0<strong>naked eye meteors<\/strong> are produced by\u00a0<strong>tiny particles<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; comparable in size with a\u00a0<strong>grain or sand\u00a0<\/strong>or a\u00a0<strong>coffee granule<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>the reason that such\u00a0<strong>small particles<\/strong> can produce flashes of light visible from the Earth&#8217;s surface is because they hit the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere at <strong>very high speed<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<strong>tens of kilometres per second<\/strong>. Even the\u00a0<strong>slowest meteors\u00a0<\/strong>arrive at speeds of\u00a0<strong>10-20 kilometres per second!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>fireballs\u00a0<\/strong>are merely\u00a0<strong>very bright meteors<\/strong>, produce from larger objects &#8211;\u00a0<strong>the size of a marble upwards<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Chelyabinsk fireball<\/strong>, visible over Russia in February 2013, is believed to have been produced from an object originally around\u00a0<strong>17 metres across<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Scientists are rather unsure as to\u00a0<strong>how much meteor related material encounters the Earth each day<\/strong>. Estimates range from 5 tonnes to 300 tonnes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite the uncertainty in the amount of meteoric material arriving each day, it is still tiny compared with the mass of the Earth. The\u00a0<strong>extra mass<\/strong>\u00a0has\u00a0<strong>negligible effect<\/strong>\u00a0on the\u00a0<strong>Earth&#8217;s gravity<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; you can&#8217;t blame it for any weight that you put on!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The meteors that we see are near the top of the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere &#8211; at\u00a0<strong>altitudes<\/strong>\u00a0of around\u00a0<strong>80-100 kilometres<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Because they appear so high up in the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere the brighter meteors and fireballs\u00a0<strong>can be seen by people located hundreds of kilometres apart\u00a0<\/strong>and although it may appear is if a fireball is &#8220;landing&#8221; behind a nearby hill, it will actually be hundreds of kilometres away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Only the largest objects produce a remnant that survives all the way down to the Earth&#8217;s surface &#8211; the remnant which lands is known as a\u00a0<strong>meteorite.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Recently fallen meteorites are at best &#8220;warm&#8221;<\/strong>. Although their surface will have been heated to very high temperatures while at high altitude, this heat doesn&#8217;t penetrate far internally and, after the outer layers have been burnt off, the remaining remnant free-falls to the Earth&#8217;s surface.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Most fireballs<\/strong>\u00a0visible from the UK will have trajectories that\u00a0<strong>end over the sea<\/strong>\u00a0&#8230; and so any meteorites from them will end with a &#8220;splash&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No meteorite has been recovered in the UK since 1991<\/strong>. Most that have &#8220;landed&#8221; will be hidden by vegetation and nearly all rocks that people find and assume to be meteorites are merely terrestrial rocks or the by-products of iron smelting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The best places in the world to discover meteorites<\/strong>\u00a0are in Antarctica or in deserts &#8211; because these locations are vegetation-free and meteorites on the surface will stand out from the surrounding ice\/land.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some surprising facts about meteors (shooting stars) and fireballs: meteors\u00a0take their name from\u00a0meteorology\u00a0&#8211; the study of the weather. This name arose because until a couple of centuries ago the prevailing scientific view was that meteors were purely atmospheric<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.popastro.com\/meteor\/amazing-but-true\/\"><span>Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1570","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are some surprising facts about meteors (shooting stars) and fireballs: meteors take their name from meteorology - the study of the weather. 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