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A meteoroid (/ ˈ m iː t i ə r ɔɪ d / MEE-tee-ə-royd) [1] is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are distinguished as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. [2] Objects smaller than meteoroids are classified as micrometeoroids or space dust.
The Leonid meteor shower peaks around 17 November of each year. The Leonid shower produces a meteor storm, peaking at rates of thousands of meteors per hour. Leonid storms gave birth to the term meteor shower when it was first realised that, during the November 1833 storm, the meteors radiated from near the star Gamma Leonis. The last Leonid ...
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 ...
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.
Typical analyses include investigation of the minerals that make up the meteorite, their relative locations, orientations, and chemical compositions; analysis of isotope ratios; and radiometric dating. These techniques are used to determine the age, formation process, and subsequent history of the material forming the meteorite.
The radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower A meteoroid of the Perseids with a size of about ten millimetres entering the Earth's atmosphere in slow motion (x 0.1). The meteoroid is at the bright head of the trail, and the recombination glow of the ionised mesosphere is still visible for about 0.7 seconds in the tail.
International Meteorite Collectors Association News and information about meteorite collecting and authentication ethics; Planetary Science Research Discoveries: meteorite articles and photographs; The British and Irish Meteorite Society; Types of extraterrestrial material available for study; The Natural History Museum's meteorite catalogue ...
Bacterial spores and plant seeds are two common proposed vessels for panspermia. According to the theory, they could be encased in a meteorite and transported to another planet from their origin, subsequently descend through the atmosphere and populate the surface with life (see lithopanspermia below).