Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Meteorite. The 60- tonne, 2.7 m-long (8.9 ft) Hoba meteorite in Namibia is the largest known intact meteorite. [1] A meteorite is a rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the ...
Meteoroid. A meteoroid shown entering the atmosphere, causing a visible meteor and hitting the Earth's surface, becoming a meteorite. A meteoroid (/ ˈmiːtiərɔɪd / 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 ...
Iron meteorites, also called siderites or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron meteorites originate from cores of planetesimals, [3] with the exception of the IIE iron meteorite group.
A chondrite / ˈkɒndraɪt / is a stony (non- metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. [a][1] They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primitive asteroids. Some such bodies that are captured in the planet's gravity well ...
A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater -forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a synonym for a fireball, sometimes specific to those with an apparent magnitude of −4 or brighter.
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is classified as an iron meteorite belonging to the meteorite group IIAB and with a coarse octahedrite structure. It is composed of approximately 93% iron, 5.9% nickel, 0.42% cobalt, 0.46% phosphorus, and 0.28% sulfur, with trace amounts of germanium and iridium. Minerals present include taenite, plessite, troilite ...
Widmanstätten patterns, also known as Thomson structures, are figures of long phases of nickel – iron, found in the octahedrite shapes of iron meteorite crystals and some pallasites. Iron meteorites are very often formed from a single crystal of iron-nickel alloy, or sometimes a number of large crystals that may be many meters in size, and ...
Meteorite classification may indicate that a "genetic" relationship exists between similar meteorite specimens. Similarly classified meteorites may share a common origin, and therefore may come from the same astronomical object (such as a planet, asteroid, or moon) known as a parent body. However, with current scientific knowledge, these types ...