Transcript Meteorites

METEORITES – What are they?
Meteorites are chunks of extra-terrestrial
matter from outer space that land on Earth.
Rocks from Outer Space!
Where do they come from?
Most meteorites come from
the asteroid belt that exists
between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter. Collisions
between asteroids can create
more debris as well as knock
some of this material out of
the asteroid belt. This debris
may get trapped in the
gravitational pull of the Earth’s
orbit and come slamming
down onto the ground.
Meteorites have also come
from Mars and the Moon.
How do they get here?
When this debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere, they
turn into “shooting stars” or “meteors” and look like a
white or bright streak of light that is hurtling across the
sky. Since most meteors burn up in the atmosphere
before they ever touch the ground, they usually don’t
produce meteorites. Only the really big and bright
meteors, the “bolides” or “fireballs”, have enough rocky
stuff left over.
What are they made of?
Meteorites from the
asteroid belt are usually
chondrites (or stony
meteorites) and are most
often made up of nickeliron metal, pyroxene,
and olivine.
Can you find the meteorite?
How well did you do?
Martian Meteorites
How do we know they’re from Mars?
From spectroscopic measurements, we know the
chemical composition of Mars’ atmosphere. The
chemical analysis done on the gas inside the rocks
matched the chemical composition of Mars’
atmosphere, and voilà, we have Martian meteorites!!
How did they
get here?
A huge meteor or comet would
have to have violently smashed
into Mars surface and blasted
off chunks of Mars at speeds of
at least 11,000 miles per hour.
That’s how fast a rock would
have to be going to escape
Mars’ gravity and land on earth.
What’s a Lunar
meteorite?
Sometimes the moon is hit by passing
objects such as asteroids and comets.
When an object is big enough and
heavy enough, when it crashes into
the moon, it can send chunks of the
moon flying everywhere. Some of
these pieces can land on earth as
lunar meteorites, or lunaites .
On this lunaite, there are no sharp angles or edges in
the portions of the meteorite covered by the fusion
crust. But there are ablation scoops and pits.