Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Facts About Meteorites
Before we take a deep dive into what a meteorite is, here’s some quick fire meteorite facts to kick things off.
A meteoroid is a chunk of space rock. When it burns up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere, it is called a meteor. And if a piece of it lands, it’s called a meteorite.
Millions of meteoroids travel through the Earth’s atmosphere every day, but most are small and burned up quickly. Very few reach the ground.
When a meteoroid hits the atmosphere of the Earth, it can be travelling as fast as 130,000 mph (209,215 km).
The buying and selling of meteorite pieces in South Africa is illegal. It is also illegal to export meteorites that landed in Australia as they are considered “property of the Crown.”
A meteorite that is seen or detected as it lands are called “falls”, with those that are discovered later being referred to as “finds”.
Space rocks that are less than 1 meter in diameter are called meteoroids. Those that are more than 1 meter in size are classified as asteroids.
Of the 500 estimated meteorites that reach the ground every year, only five or six are recovered for scientists to study.
A meteorite will hit a human being once every 180 years according to a study by Nature done in 1985. With Ann Hodges the only confirmed person to be hit by a meteorite in 1954, that means the next time somebody will be hit by a meteorite is 2134—an average of .0055 per year.
The blast caused by the shockwaves of the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia was picked up by infrasound sensors on the other side of the world.
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