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Fossil meteorite – a meteorite that was buried under layers of sediment before the start of the Quaternary period. Some or all of the original cosmic material has been replaced by diagenetic minerals. [3]: 320 (It is, however, not a fossil). Fusion crust – a coating on meteorites that forms during their passage through the atmosphere.
A "meteorite fall", also called an "observed fall", is a meteorite collected after its arrival was observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a "meteorite find". [43] [44] There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed in widely used databases, [45] [46] [47] most of which have specimens in modern collections.
A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star or falling star, is the visible passage of a glowing meteoroid, micrometeoroid, comet or asteroid through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, [11] [23] [24] creating a streak of light via its rapid motion and sometimes ...
Meteoritics [note 1] is the science that deals with meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids. [ note 2 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It is closely connected to cosmochemistry , mineralogy and geochemistry . A specialist who studies meteoritics is known as a meteoriticist .
List of meteor showers; Minor planets. List of minor planets. List of exceptional asteroids; List of minor planet moons; List of damocloids; List of centaurs (small Solar System bodies) List of trans-Neptunian objects; List of unnumbered minor planets; List of dwarf planets; List of possible dwarf planets
This is a list of largest meteorites on Earth. Size can be assessed by the largest fragment of a given meteorite or the total amount of material coming from the same meteorite fall: often a single meteoroid during atmospheric entry tends to fragment into more pieces. The table lists the largest meteorites found on the Earth's surface.
Path of the fireball and the area in northern Mexico where the meteorite pieces landed (the strewnfield) [4] [5] Allende is often called "the best-studied meteorite in history." There are several reasons for this: Allende fell in early 1969, just months before the Apollo program was to return the first Moon rocks. This was a time of great ...
Micrometeoroids pose a significant threat to space exploration. The average velocity of micrometeoroids relative to a spacecraft in orbit is 10 kilometers per second (22,500 mph). Resistance to micrometeoroid impact is a significant design challenge for spacecraft and space suit designers (See Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment).