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A meteorite is a portion of a meteoroid or asteroid that survives its passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground without being destroyed. [22] Meteorites are sometimes, but not always, found in association with hypervelocity impact craters; during energetic collisions, the entire impactor may be vaporized, leaving no meteorites.
Meteorites are often studied as part of cosmochemistry. Cosmochemistry (from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos) 'universe' and χημεία (khēmeía) 'chemistry') or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. [1]
The mesosphere is also the layer where most meteors burn up upon atmospheric entrance. It is too high above Earth to be accessible to jet-powered aircraft and balloons, and too low to permit orbital spacecraft. The mesosphere is mainly accessed by sounding rockets and rocket-powered aircraft.
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.
It identified two processes, known as space weathering, at work - the meteorite impacts and a phenomenon called solar wind sputtering. "Solar winds carry high-energy charged particles, primarily ...
The Massalia asteroid family, formed about 40 million years ago, accounts for a class of meteorites called L chondrites that represent 37% of known Earth meteorites, the research found. The Karin ...
Porous chondrite dust particle. Cosmic dust – also called extraterrestrial dust, space dust, or star dust – is dust that occurs in outer space or has fallen onto Earth. [1] [2] Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 μm), such as micrometeoroids (<30 μm) and meteoroids (>30 μm). [3]
Presolar grains – interstellar solid matter in the form of tiny solid grains from a time before the Sun was formed. Primitive meteorite; Primitive achondrite – a meteorite that has similarities to achondrites and chondrites. Protoplanetary disk – a circumstellar disk from which all solids in the Solar System formed. Pyroxene pallasite ...