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Lecture 8 Meteors

Meteoroids are fragments of asteroids or comets that float in space. When they enter Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors and light up due to friction, appearing as shooting stars. If any part of the meteor survives impact and hits the ground, it is called a meteorite. Examples of famous meteorites include those that formed Meteor Crater in Arizona and the Vredefort Crater in South Africa. Evidence suggests oceans were formed from water delivered by icy meteorites impacting Earth over time.

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31 views

Lecture 8 Meteors

Meteoroids are fragments of asteroids or comets that float in space. When they enter Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors and light up due to friction, appearing as shooting stars. If any part of the meteor survives impact and hits the ground, it is called a meteorite. Examples of famous meteorites include those that formed Meteor Crater in Arizona and the Vredefort Crater in South Africa. Evidence suggests oceans were formed from water delivered by icy meteorites impacting Earth over time.

Uploaded by

aqsakhalid865
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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METEOROID, METEOR & METEORITE!

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METEOROID

 When fragments of an asteroid or a comet break off and float freely in the space, they are called meteoroids
 Some meteoroids are also believed to have come from Mars or moon
 Meteoroids could be large enough tens of meters across or could be as small as pebbles
 Most of the meteoroids are attracted by Earth’s gravitational influence
 As long as this fragment is floating freely in space and does not enter the Earth’s atmosphere, it is called a
meteoroid

2
METEOR

 When a meteoroid (of whatever origin, comet or asteroid) enters Earth’s atmosphere, it is called a meteor
 It interacts with Earth’s atmosphere, and lights up due to friction - phenomenon called shooting star

Why do meteors light up after entering Earth’s Atmosphere?

 Meteors travel at very high speeds often reaching 20 Km/s or 72000miles/hour which is almost twice the speed of
a bullet leaving its barrel. A meteor with this velocity, cutting through the atmosphere, creates frictional heating
resulting in luminosity and hence, the shooting star!

3
EXAMPLES OF METEORS

 Chelyabinsk Meteor Incident


 Meteor showers from Comets
 Recent meteor spotted in the skies of Chile

4
METEORITE

 Meteors light upon entering Earth’s atmosphere and most of the times their mass is consumed before it can reach
Earth’s surface
 Sometimes the mass is not consumed fast enough and the meteor ends up hitting Earth. As soon as a meteor hits
the ground, it is called a meteorite
 A small meteorite goes unnoticed, but a large one can be disastrous

5
FAMOUS EXAMPLES OF METEORITES

 Arizona USA Meteor Crater


 South Africa’s Vredefort Crater
 Tunguska Incidence - The most scariest asteroid crash ever witnessed in Siberia 1908

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THEORY ABOUT EARTH’S OCEANS

 It was long thought that Earth’s water did not originate from the planet’s
 There is also evidence that water was delivered to Earth by impacts from icy planetesimals /comets which hit

the Earth as meteorites and water was stored in the craters taking the shape of oceans

7
THANK YOU!

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