Have you ever seen a quick flash of light streak across the sky on a hot summer evening? There’s a good chance you’ve spotted a meteor, a meteoroid, or a shooting star. Essentially, all three are the same thing: a piece of space debris. Depending on when you see such a rock, we call it a meteor, a meteoroid, or a shooting star. We explain the differences below.
What is a meteorite?
We start our astronomy lesson with a meteor. This is actually nothing more than a piece of space debris that quickly enters the Earth’s atmosphere. This can be a bit of dust or a pebble the size of a peanut. But a meteor can also be more than a meter across.
According to NASA Every day, about 44,000 kilograms of space debris falls toward Earth. That may sound like a lot of danger, but it’s rare for rocks from space like this to end up in someone’s backyard. The vast majority of meteors burn up in the atmosphere. In doing so, they leave behind a flash of light, which we call a meteor. Several times a year, you can see several meteors at once, such as during the Perseid meteor shower or the Botid meteor shower.
The difference between a meteorite and a meteor
If such a space rock survives the journey through the atmosphere, we don’t call it a meteorite, we call it a meteor. So it’s still the same rock, it just gets a different name once it lands in your backyard. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often, but it’s not impossible.
American Ann Hodges can relate. In 1956, she was taking a nap on the couch in her living room when a meteorite crashed through the ceiling. Fortunately, she suffered nothing more than a bruise and a burn from the impact.
What happens when a meteor hits?
The consequences of a meteorite impact can be many times greater. The most famous impact in Earth’s history is the meteorite that ended the age of dinosaurs. Even giant dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Brachiosaurus, which were the size of a four-story apartment, did not survive this impact.
The meteorite that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs was not small. It was about ten kilometers in diameter. Although the chances of Earth being hit again by such a giant space rock in the near future are extremely small, scientists are preparing emergency scenarios.
NASA organizes one every two years. Interagency Tabletop Exercise for Planetary Defense. Then international experts and scientists come together and think about how to reduce the impact of a potential meteorite impact. So, if a giant rock does enter our atmosphere, we will be better prepared than the dinosaurs were 66 million years ago.
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