Space is an endless dark void. Countless celestial bodies exist in this vacuum. Who knows when these celestial bodies disintegrate from the collisions they experience and scatter smaller pieces around. Some of these pieces start orbiting and spinning around the sun, and when the time comes, they will some of them come to our world by breaking away from there. Those that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and sometimes fall to the Earth from these pieces are called meteorites.

As humans living on Earth, we are not aware of it, but meteorites are constantly coming to our world. Thanks to the planet’s atmosphere, most are destroyed by combustion. Some may fall to the ground. Even if they don’t fall to the earth, we can see them with the naked eye because they emit a very bright light when they burn. Bride Let’s take a closer look at what a meteorite is and let’s look at interesting information about meteorites.

What is a meteorite?

Although we call it meteorite in Turkish, the English name of these objects is meteor. The word meteor is of Greek origin. and the thing above resources. In the basic definition, meteorites are space rocks and meteoroids that enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Like many other celestial events, the intrusion of meteorites into the Earth’s atmosphere can be observed with the naked eye.

Meteorite events often occur at an altitude of 50-80 kilometers from Earth. The fastest meteorites It was observed to reach a speed of 71 kilometers per second. Every day 50 tons of meteorites fall on our earth, but most of them are the size of pebbles. This is because of the atmosphere. Most meteorites start to burn and disappear as soon as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

Even if most of the meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere are destroyed by combustion, some of them it survives this process by shrinking and manages to descend to Earth. However, the combustion they experience is so intense that, no matter how large they are, a very small fraction of it often falls to the Earth. Therefore, it is possible to find a meteorite while walking on the road, but not every stone of interest can be a meteorite.

Interesting information about meteorites:

• When meteorites come close together, they can create a meteor shower.
• Meteorites can occur for many different reasons.
• A celestial body is not called a meteorite until it reaches the ground.
• Meteor showers are named after the constellations in which they occur.
• Meteorites are old, they can be very old.
• During the burning of meteorites, very different colors can appear.
• A meteorite called the Fireball is even brighter than the planet Venus.
• Tens of thousands of meteorites can be seen on some nights.
• The International Space Station is protected from meteorites.

When meteorites come close together, they can create a meteor shower:

In fact, the meteorite fall is usually called meteor shower. Because somehow from another celestial body Objects approaching our world are found in multiple pieces and are released into the atmosphere in this way. The event formed by multiple meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere one after the other is called meteor shower. Of course we all know how much fun it is to watch.

Meteorites can occur for many different reasons:

Meteorites are fragments of a celestial body that enter the Earth’s atmosphere. So it is a remnant of rubble. This debris is from a comet, asteroid, meteoroid or who knows when it could have been formed by breaking off from a planet. They can also turn into a meteorite as a single large mass, they can disintegrate as a result of collisions and similar events in the vacuum of space and turn into many different and small pieces of meteorite.

A celestial body is not called a meteorite until it reaches the ground:

In popular science articles or news, celestial bodies that strike the earth, enter the earth’s atmosphere and even pass close to our earth are called meteorites. However When we get to the terminological part of the work These are not all meteorites. NASA calls the celestial bodies that can only pass through the Earth’s atmosphere and reach the Earth’s surface as meteorites. Other cases are named according to the nature of the object and event.

Meteor showers are named after the constellations in which they occur:

Meteor showers are generally experienced within an hour and several meteorites are seen. Objects that cause this are often remnants of comet debris. That’s why meteor showers are named after the constellation that contains the comet from which they burst. The Leonid meteor shower comes from comet Tempel-Tuttle in the constellation Leo. Many meteor showers such as Perseids, Orionids and Geminids occur regularly every year. The Leonid meteor shower occurs every November.

Meteorites are old, they can be very old:

Meteorite falls, especially meteor showers, are common. More than 30 meteor showers occur every year, according to experts. These remains of debris did not come loose yesterday. Most are over 100 years old. The meteor shower, called Perseid, occurs every August. This situation, first seen 2,000 years ago, is recorded in Chinese annals. In other words, meteor showers have a history of thousands of years.

During the burning of meteorites, many different colors can appear:

Remains of debris from celestial bodies begin to burn as soon as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. If you say that what you call burning is red, you’re wrong. Because depending on the composition of the meteorite, many different colors can arise. For example, a meteorite with a high iron content might glow yellow, while a meteorite with a high calcium content might glow purple.

An asteroid called the Fireball is even brighter than the planet Venus:

Fireball is actually a type of meteorite, not a single meteorite. Their size generally ranges from a basketball to a car. They last much longer and are brighter than the meteorites we know. The International Astronomical Union says that this type of asteroid is even brighter than an extremely bright planet like Venus. The most famous fireball is the Great Daylight Fireball, which was seen in the US state of Utah in 1972 when it passed at 15 kilometers per second.

Tens of thousands of meteorites can be seen on some nights:

If you’re sitting in front of the aerial radar at NASA or a similar organization, you’ll be shocked. because Apart from what is seen, there is a continuous meteorite fall on our earth. The measurement taken by such a radar on a standard night showed that there were about 12 thousand meteorites. Most of them somehow manage to land on the earth, even if they are like dust.

The International Space Station is protected from meteorites:

It turns out that such debris in space is constantly spinning and crashing in places. The atmosphere protects our world, but if you ask how the International Space Station is protected, the answer is hidden in the special shield. Though not like the power shields we see in sci-fi movies The International Space Station also has a shield around it, which provides protection against all meteorites up to 3 cm in diameter.

By answering the question of what a meteorite is, tens of thousands of which enter our world every day. We talked about interesting information about meteorites. For the sake of clarity, we have of course tried to avoid many technical terms. For more detailed information about meteorites, you can visit the official websites of NASA and other similar organizations.

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