Interesting facts about meteorites. Facts about meteorites Mini message about a meteorite falling on the surface of the earth

A cosmic body before entering the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteoroid and is classified according to astronomical criteria. For example, it could be cosmic dust, a meteoroid, an asteroid, their fragments, or other meteoroids.

A celestial body flying through the Earth's atmosphere and leaving a bright luminous trail in it, regardless of whether it flies through the upper layers of the atmosphere and goes back into outer space, burns up in the atmosphere, or falls to Earth, can be called either a meteor or a bolide . Meteors are considered bodies no brighter than 4th magnitude, and fireballs - brighter than 4th magnitude, or bodies whose angular dimensions are distinguishable.

A solid body of cosmic origin that fell to the surface of the Earth is called a meteorite.

A crater (astrobleme) may form at the site where a large meteorite falls. One of the most famous craters in the world is Arizona. It is assumed that the largest meteorite crater on Earth is Wilkes Earth Crater (diameter about 500 km).

Other names for meteorites: aerolites, siderolites, uranolites, meteorolites, baituloi, sky, air, atmospheric or meteor stones, etc.

Phenomena similar to the fall of a meteorite on other planets and celestial bodies are usually called simply collisions between celestial bodies.

The process of meteorites falling to Earth

The meteor body enters the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 11-25 km/sec. At this speed, it begins to warm up and glow. Due to ablation (burning and blowing away by the oncoming flow of particles of the meteoroid body), the mass of the body that reaches the ground may be less, and in some cases significantly less than its mass at the entrance to the atmosphere. For example, a body that enters the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 25 km/s or more burns up almost completely. At such a speed of entry into the atmosphere, out of tens and hundreds of tons of initial mass, only a few kilograms or even grams of matter reach the ground. Traces of the combustion of a meteoroid in the atmosphere can be found along almost the entire trajectory of its fall.

If the meteor body does not burn up in the atmosphere, then as it slows down it loses the horizontal component of its speed. This results in a change in the trajectory of the fall from often almost horizontal at the beginning to almost vertical at the end. As it slows down, the glow of the meteorite decreases and it cools down (they often indicate that the meteorite was warm and not hot when it fell).

In addition, the meteor body may break into fragments, resulting in a Meteor Shower.

Classification of meteorites

Classification by composition

stone
- chondrites
  - carbonaceous chondrites
  - ordinary chondrites
  - enstatite chondrites
iron-stone
- palasites
- mesosiderites
iron

The most common meteorites are stony meteorites (92.8% of falls). They consist mainly of silicates: olivines (Fe, Mg)2SiO4 (from fayalite Fe2SiO4 to forsterite Mg2SiO4) and pyroxenes (Fe, Mg)SiO3 (from ferrosilite FeSiO3 to enstatite MgSiO3).

The vast majority of stony meteorites (92.3% of stony meteorites, 85.7% of total falls) are chondrites. They are called chondrites because they contain chondrules - spherical or elliptical formations of predominantly silicate composition. Most chondrules are no more than 1 mm in diameter, but some can reach several millimeters. Chondrules are found in a detrital or finely crystalline matrix, and often the matrix differs from chondrules not so much in composition as in crystalline structure. The composition of chondrites almost completely replicates the chemical composition of the Sun, with the exception of light gases such as hydrogen and helium. Therefore, it is believed that chondrites formed directly from the protoplanetary cloud that surrounded and surrounded the Sun, through the condensation of matter and the accretion of dust with intermediate heating.

Achondrites make up 7.3% of stony meteorites. These are fragments of protoplanetary (and planetary?) bodies that have undergone melting and differentiation by composition (into metals and silicates).

Iron meteorites are composed of an iron-nickel alloy. They account for 5.7% of falls.

Iron silicate meteorites have a composition intermediate between stony and iron meteorites. They are relatively rare (1.5% incidence).

Achondrites, iron and iron-silicate meteorites are classified as differentiated meteorites. They presumably consist of matter that has undergone differentiation as part of asteroids or other planetary bodies. It was previously believed that all differentiated meteorites were formed by the rupture of one or more large bodies, such as the planet Phaeton. However, an analysis of the composition of different meteorites showed that they were more likely formed from the debris of many large asteroids.

Classification by detection method

falls (when a meteorite is found after observing its fall in the atmosphere);
finds (when the meteorite origin of the material is determined only by analysis);

Traces of extraterrestrial organics in meteorites

Coal complex

Carbonaceous (carbonaceous) meteorites have one important feature - the presence of a thin glassy crust, apparently formed under the influence of high temperatures. This crust is a good heat insulator, thanks to which minerals that cannot withstand strong heat, such as gypsum, are preserved inside carbonaceous meteorites. Thus, it became possible, when studying the chemical nature of such meteorites, to detect in their composition substances that, under modern earthly conditions, are organic compounds of a biogenic nature ( Source: Rutten M. Origin of life (naturally). - M., Publishing House "Mir", 1973) :

Saturated hydrocarbons
- - Isoprenoids
  - n-Alkanes
  - Cycloalkanes

Aromatic hydrocarbons
- - Naphthalene
  - Alkybenzenes
  - Acenaphthenes
  - Pyrene

Carboxylic acids
- - Fatty acid
  - Benzenecarboxylic acids
  - Hydroxybenzoic acids

Nitrogen compounds
- - Pyrimidines
  - Purines
  - Guanylurea
  - Triazines
  - Porphyrins

The presence of such substances does not allow us to unambiguously declare the existence of life outside the Earth, since theoretically, if certain conditions were met, they could be synthesized abiogenically.

On the other hand, if the substances found in meteorites are not products of life, then they may be products of pre-life - similar to that which once existed on Earth.

"Organized Elements"

When studying stony meteorites, so-called “organized elements” are discovered - microscopic (5-50 microns) “single-cell” formations, often having clearly defined double walls, pores, spines, etc. ( Source: Same)

It is not an indisputable fact that these fossils are the remains of some form of extraterrestrial life. But, on the other hand, these formations have such a high degree of organization that is usually associated with life ( Source: Same).

In addition, such forms have not been found on Earth.

A feature of “organized elements” is also their large number: per 1g. The substances of the carbonaceous meteorite account for approximately 1800 “organized elements”.

Large modern meteorites in Russia

Tunguska phenomenon (at the moment, the exact meteorite origin of the Tunguska phenomenon is unclear. For details, see the article Tunguska meteorite). Fell on June 30 this year in the Podkamennaya Tunguska river basin in Siberia. The total energy is estimated at 15−40 megatons of TNT equivalent.
Tsarevsky meteorite (meteor shower). Fell on December 6 near the village of Tsarev, Volgograd region. This is a rock meteorite. The total mass of the collected fragments is 1.6 tons over an area of about 15 square meters. km. The weight of the largest fallen fragment was 284 kg.
Sikhote-Alin meteorite (total mass of fragments is 30 tons, energy is estimated at 20 kilotons). It was an iron meteorite. Fell in the Ussuri taiga on February 12.
Vitimsky car. Fell in the area of the villages of Mama and Vitimsky, Mamsko-Chuysky district, Irkutsk region, on the night of September 24-25. The event had a great public resonance, although the total energy of the meteorite explosion is apparently relatively small (200 tons of TNT equivalent, with an initial energy of 2.3 kilotons), the maximum initial mass (before combustion in the atmosphere) is 160 tons, and the final mass of the fragments is about several hundred kilograms.

The discovery of a meteorite is a rather rare occurrence. The Meteoritics Laboratory reports: “In total, only 125 meteorites have been found on the territory of the Russian Federation over 250 years.”

The only documented case of a meteorite hitting a person occurred on November 30 in Alabama. The meteorite, weighing about 4 kg, crashed through the roof of the house and ricocheted Anna Elizabeth Hodges on the arm and thigh. The woman received bruises.

Other interesting facts about meteorites:

Individual meteorites

Channing
Chainpur
Beeler
Arcadia
Arapahoe

Notes

Meteorite fall.

Until a meteorite reaches the Earth, it is called a meteoroid. Meteoroids fly into the atmosphere at speeds from 11 to 30 km/s. At an altitude of about 100 km, due to friction with the air, the meteoroid begins to heat up; its surface becomes hot, and a layer several millimeters thick melts and evaporates. At this time it is visible as a bright meteor ( cm. METEOR). The molten and evaporated substance is continuously carried away by air pressure - this is called ablation. Sometimes, under the pressure of air, a meteor is crushed into many fragments. Passing through the atmosphere, it loses from 10 to 90% of its initial mass. However, the interior of the meteor usually remains cold, since it does not have time to warm up during the 10 seconds that the fall lasts. Overcoming air resistance, small meteorites significantly reduce their flight speed by the time they hit the ground and usually go deeper into the ground by no more than a meter, and sometimes they simply remain on the surface. Large meteorites are slowed down only slightly and upon impact produce an explosion with the formation of a crater, such as in Arizona or on the Moon. The largest meteorite found is the iron meteorite Goba (South Africa), whose weight is estimated at 60 tons. It was never moved from the place where it was found.

Every year, several meteorites are picked up immediately after their observed fall. In addition, more and more old meteorites are being discovered. In two places in the east of the state. In New Mexico, where the wind constantly blows away the soil, 90 meteorites were found. Hundreds of meteorites have been discovered on the surface of evaporating glaciers in Antarctica. Recently fallen meteorites are covered with a vitrified, sintered crust that is darker than the interior. Meteorites are of great scientific interest; Most major natural science museums and many universities have meteorite experts.

Types of meteorites.

There are meteorites made of various substances. Some are primarily composed of an iron-nickel alloy containing up to 40% nickel. Among the fallen meteorites, only 5.7% are iron, but in collections their share is much larger, since they are destroyed more slowly under the influence of water and wind, and they are also easier to detect by appearance. If you polish a section of an iron meteorite and lightly etch it with acid, you can often see a crystalline pattern of intersecting stripes formed by alloys with different nickel contents. This drawing is called “Widmanstätten figures” in honor of A. Widmanstätten (1754–1849), who was the first to observe them in 1808.

Stony meteorites are divided into two large groups: chondrites and achondrites. Chondrites are the most common, accounting for 84.8% of all fallen meteorites. They contain rounded millimeter-sized grains - chondrules; Some meteorites are composed almost entirely of chondrules. Chondrules have not been found in terrestrial rocks, but glassy grains of similar size have been found in lunar soil. Chemists have studied them carefully because the chemical composition of chondrules likely represents the primordial matter of the solar system. This standard composition is called the “cosmic abundance of elements.” In chondrites of a certain type, containing up to 3% carbon and 20% water, signs of biological matter were intensively searched, but no signs of living organisms were found in either these or other meteorites. Achondrites lack chondrules and resemble lunar rock in appearance.

Parent bodies of meteorites.

The study of the mineralogical, chemical and isotopic composition of meteorites has shown that they are fragments of larger objects in the Solar System. The maximum radius of these parent bodies is estimated at 200 km. The largest asteroids are approximately this size. The estimate is based on the cooling rate of the iron meteorite, at which two alloys with nickel are obtained, forming Widmanstätten figures. Rocky meteorites were likely dislodged from the surface of small, atmosphereless, cratered planets like the Moon. Cosmic radiation destroyed the surface of these meteorites in the same way as moon rocks. However, the chemical composition of meteorites and lunar samples is so different that it is quite obvious that the meteorites did not come from the Moon. Scientists were able to photograph two meteorites as they fell and calculate their orbits from the photographs: it turned out that these bodies came from the asteroid belt. Asteroids are likely the main sources of meteorites, although some may be particles from evaporated comets.

Each meteorite that falls to Earth increases the chances of finding answers to many questions about the origin of the Universe and the origin of life on Earth. These cosmic messengers several times led to the apocalypse on our planet. The threat of Armageddon from a collision with a heavenly stone arises every few decades. Below are 15 interesting facts about meteorites:

Meteorites are considered only those cosmic bodies that have reached the surface of the Earth, and did not burn up in the layers of its atmosphere or fly back into outer space.
According to rough calculations, about 5–6 tons of celestial bodies fall to Earth every day. And per year this figure is 2,000 tons. The weight of individual specimens ranges from several grams to hundreds of kilograms and even tens of tons.
The largest crater (astrobleme) from a cosmic body falling to Earth is located in Antarctica and is called Wilkes Earth Crater. Its diameter is 500 km. The meteorite that formed this crater is believed to have fallen 250 million years ago and caused the Permian-Triassic extinction event of 96% of marine and 70% of terrestrial life on our planet. This crater was discovered in 1962. The second largest astrobleme is located in Canada on the shores of Hudson Bay. Its diameter is 440 km.
The largest and oldest scientifically proven astrobleme with a funnel diameter of 300 km is located in South Africa. The city of Vredefort is located in the crater, which gave its name to the crater. The fall of the celestial body occurred 4 billion years ago.
The most famous meteorite crater is the Arizona one.. It is located in the USA in the state of Arizona. This crater has a diameter of 1200 meters and a depth of 230, with the edges protruding upward by 46 meters. The Arizona astrobleme was formed 50,000 years ago from the fall of a cosmic body with a diameter of 50 meters, weighing 300,000 tons and flying at a speed of 50,000 km/h. Compared to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the explosion in Arizona was 8,000 times more powerful.
In the 18th century, the Paris Academy of Sciences considered meteorites to be stones of terrestrial origin that are formed from lightning.
Due to the enormous speed (11 – 72 km/s) of meteorites with which they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, the cosmic body is destroyed (burned and blown away by a flow of atmospheric gases). Therefore, an insignificant part of them reaches the surface. From a multi-ton block, several kilograms may remain.
When a meteorite breaks into pieces in flight, a meteorite shower can form.. Particularly large celestial bodies can cause catastrophic consequences with meteor showers.
The largest cosmic body found is the Goba meteorite. It fell to Earth 80,000 years ago in Namibia. The low speed of the fall allowed a large part to survive. Its weight is 66 tons, and its volume is 9 cubic meters. It consists of 84% iron and 16% nickel with an admixture of cobalt. According to assumptions, the initial mass of the meteorite body upon contact with the Earth's surface was 90 tons. But impact, time, vandals and explorers left only 60 tons.
The Goba meteorite is the largest piece of naturally occurring iron on Earth..
All cosmic bodies that fell to Earth are divided into three groups according to their composition: iron (6% of falls), stone (93% of cases) and iron-stone.
Stone meteorites contain traces of organic compounds of unearthly origin. Therefore, there is a theory according to which life was brought to Earth from space.
Even rocky meteorites are magnetic. This is explained by the presence of nickel iron in their structure
.
There are known cases of cosmic bodies hitting people and the death of a person from the consequences of a shock wave caused by the fall of a cosmic body.
In 1969, the oldest meteorite in the solar system, the Allende meteorite, fell and shattered in Mexico.. Of the estimated 5 tons, it was possible to collect 3. Among other things, Allende is the largest carbonaceous meteorite found on Earth.

A meteor is a particle of dust or fragments of cosmic bodies (comets or asteroids), which, when entering the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere from space, burn up, leaving behind a strip of light that we observe. A popular name for a meteor is a shooting star.

The Earth is constantly being bombarded by objects from space. They vary in size, from stones weighing several kilograms, to microscopic particles weighing less than a millionth of a gram. According to some experts, the Earth captures more than 200 million kg of various meteoric substances during the year. And about one million meteors flash every day. Only a tenth of their mass reaches the surface in the form of meteorites and micrometeorites. The rest burns up in the atmosphere, giving rise to meteor trails.

Meteoric matter usually enters the atmosphere at a speed of about 15 km/sec. Although, depending on the direction in relation to the Earth's movement, the speed can range from 11 to 73 km/s. Medium-sized particles, heated by friction, evaporate, giving a flash of visible light at an altitude of about 120 km. Leaving a short-term trace of ionized gas and extinguishes to an altitude of about 70 km. The greater the mass of the meteor body, the brighter it flares. These traces, which last 10–15 minutes, can reflect radar signals. Therefore, radar techniques are used to detect meteors that are too faint to be observed visually (as well as meteors that appear in daylight).

No one observed this meteorite as it fell. Its cosmic nature has been established based on the study of matter. Such meteorites are called finds, and they make up about half of the world's meteorite collection. The other half are falls, “fresh” meteorites picked up shortly after they hit Earth. These include the Peekskill meteorite, with which our story about space aliens began. Falls are of greater interest to specialists than finds: some astronomical information can be collected about them, and their substance is not altered by terrestrial factors.

It is customary to name meteorites based on the geographical names of places adjacent to the place where they fell or were found. Most often this is the name of the nearest populated area (for example, Peekskill), but prominent meteorites are given more general names. The two biggest falls of the 20th century. occurred on the territory of Russia: Tunguska and Sikhote-Alin.

Meteorites are divided into three large classes: iron, stony and stony-iron. Iron meteorites are composed primarily of nickel iron. A natural alloy of iron and nickel does not occur in terrestrial rocks, so the presence of nickel in pieces of iron indicates its cosmic (or industrial!) origin.

Nickel iron inclusions are found in most stony meteorites, which is why space rocks tend to be heavier than terrestrial rocks. Their main minerals are silicates (olivines and pyroxenes). A characteristic feature of the main type of stony meteorites - chondrites - is the presence of round formations inside them - chondrules. Chondrites consist of the same substance as the rest of the meteorite, but stand out on its section in the form of individual grains. Their origin is not yet entirely clear.

The third class - stony-iron meteorites - are pieces of nickel iron interspersed with grains of stony materials.

In general, meteorites consist of the same elements as terrestrial rocks, but combinations of these elements, i.e. minerals may also be those that are not found on Earth. This is due to the peculiarities of the formation of bodies that gave birth to meteorites.

Among the falls, rocky meteorites predominate. This means that there are more such pieces flying in space. As for the finds, iron meteorites predominate here: they are stronger, better preserved in terrestrial conditions, and stand out more sharply against the background of terrestrial rocks.

Meteorites are fragments of small planets - asteroids that mainly inhabit the zone between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are many asteroids, they collide, fragment, change each other’s orbits, so that some fragments, in their movement, sometimes cross the Earth’s orbit. These fragments give rise to meteorites.

It is very difficult to organize instrumental observations of meteorite falls, with the help of which their orbits can be calculated with satisfactory accuracy: the phenomenon itself is very rare and unpredictable. In several cases this was done, and all orbits turned out to be typically asteroidal.

Astronomers' interest in meteorites was primarily due to the fact that for a long time they remained the only examples of extraterrestrial matter. But even today, when the substance of other planets and their satellites becomes available for laboratory research, meteorites have not lost their importance. The substance that makes up the large bodies of the Solar System underwent a long transformation: it melted, was divided into fractions, and solidified again, forming minerals that no longer had anything in common with the substance from which everything was formed. Meteorites are fragments of small bodies that have not gone through such a complex history. Some types of meteorites - carbonaceous chondrites - generally represent weakly altered primary matter of the Solar system. By studying it, experts will learn from what large bodies of the solar system were formed, including our planet Earth.

Meteor shower

The main part of meteoric matter in the Solar System revolves around the Sun in certain orbits. The orbital characteristics of meteor swarms can be calculated from observations of meteor trails. Using this method, it was shown that many meteor swarms have the same orbits as known comets. These particles can be distributed throughout the orbit or concentrated in separate clusters. In particular, a young meteor swarm can remain concentrated near the parent comet for a long time. When, while moving in orbit, the Earth crosses such a swarm, we observe a meteor shower in the sky. The perspective effect gives rise to the optical illusion that meteors, which are actually moving on parallel trajectories, appear to be emanating from a single point in the sky, which is commonly called the radiant. This illusion is the perspective effect. In reality, these meteors are generated by particles of matter entering the upper atmosphere along parallel trajectories. These are a great number of meteors observed over a limited period of time (usually a few hours or days). Many annual flows are known. Although only some of them generate meteor showers. The Earth very rarely encounters a particularly dense swarm of particles. And then an exceptionally strong shower could occur, with tens or hundreds of meteors every minute. Typically a good regular shower produces about 50 meteors per hour.

In addition to many regular meteor showers, sporadic meteors are also observed throughout the year. They can come from any direction.

Micrometeorite

This is a particle of meteorite material that is so small that it loses its energy even before it could ignite in the Earth's atmosphere. Micrometeorites fall to Earth as a shower of tiny dust particles. The amount of substance that falls on Earth annually in this form is estimated at 4 million kg. The particle size is usually less than 120 microns. Such particles can be collected during space experiments, and iron particles, due to their magnetic properties, can be detected on the surface of the Earth.

Origin of meteorites

The rarity and unpredictability of the appearance of meteorite material on Earth causes problems in its collection. Until now, meteorite collections have been enriched primarily by samples collected by random eyewitnesses of falls or simply curious people who paid attention to strange pieces of matter. As a rule, meteorites are melted on the outside, and their surface often bears a kind of frozen “ripple” - regmaglypts. Only in places where heavy meteorite showers fall does a targeted search for samples bring results. True, recently places of natural concentration of meteorites have been discovered, the most significant of them in Antarctica.

If there is information about a very bright fireball that could result in a meteorite fall, you should try to collect observations of this fireball by random eyewitnesses over the largest possible area. It is necessary for eyewitnesses from the observation site to show the path of the car in the sky. It is advisable to measure the horizontal coordinates (azimuth and altitude) of some points on this path (start and end). In this case, the simplest instruments are used: a compass and an eclimeter - a tool for measuring angular height (this is essentially a protractor with a plumb line fixed at its zero point). When such measurements are made at several points, they can be used to construct the atmospheric trajectory of the fireball, and then look for a meteorite near the projection on the ground of its lower end.

Collecting information about fallen meteorites and searching for their samples are exciting tasks for astronomy enthusiasts, but the very formulation of such tasks is largely associated with some luck, luck that is important not to miss. But observations of meteorites can be carried out systematically and bring tangible scientific results. Of course, professional astronomers armed with modern equipment also do this kind of work. For example, they have radars at their disposal, with the help of which meteors can be observed even during the day. And yet, properly organized amateur observations, which also do not require complex technical means, still play a certain role in meteorite astronomy.

Meteorites: falls and finds

It must be said that the scientific world until the end of the 18th century. was skeptical about the very possibility of stones and pieces of iron falling from the sky. Reports of such facts were considered by scientists as manifestations of superstition, because at that time no celestial bodies were known whose debris could fall on Earth. For example, the first asteroids - small planets - were discovered only at the beginning of the 19th century.

The first scientific work asserting the cosmic origin of meteorites appeared in 1794. Its author, the German physicist Ernst Chladni, was able to give a unified explanation for three mysterious phenomena: fireballs flying across the sky, melted pieces of iron and stone falling to Earth after flights, and the finds of strange melted objects. iron blocks in different places on Earth. According to Chladni, all this is connected with the arrival of cosmic matter on Earth.

By the way, one of these unusual iron blocks was a multi-pound “kritsa”, taken by Russian academician Peter Simon Pallas from Siberia and which laid the foundation for the national collection of meteorites in Russia. This iron block with grains of the mineral olivine included in it received the name “Pallas iron” and subsequently gave the name to a whole class of stony-iron meteorites - pallastites.

Antarctica

Although meteorites fall all over the globe, they most often end up in the oceans and sink to the bottom. But there are huge barren plains of blue ice on Earth, in eastern Antarctica. On these plains there are occasional pieces of rock.

Research of meteorite impact sites

A bright streak in the sky, recorded almost at dusk on August 13, 1999, is not a meteor flash, but a “sunbeam” from a satellite. This satellite, Iridium-52, is one of the Iridium family of digital communications satellites. The "flares" are caused by sunlight reflecting off smooth antennae.

One in 100,000 meteorites that fall to Earth is destructive. Over the past 200 years of observations, 23 meteorites hit homes in the United States, and 4 meteorites in the former USSR.

1511 Genoa (Italy). A meteor shower occurred during a solar eclipse. As a result, several fishermen and a priest were killed. 1684 Tobolsk (Russia). The dome of the church was pierced as a result of a meteorite falling. 1836 Brazil. A sheep is killed by a meteorite. 1911 Egypt. A dog was killed by a falling meteorite.

On November 12, 1982, in Wethersfield (Connecticut, USA), Robert and Wanda Donahue were sitting in front of the TV in the evening when a blow was heard in the hallway and the sound of crumbling plaster was heard. The elderly couple discovered a hole the size of a human head in the roof and ceiling of the house, and in the kitchen, under the table, a stone meteorite with a diameter of 13 cm and a mass of 2.7 kg. The scientists who arrived on call were not too lazy to even look into the vacuum cleaner with which the owners carried out the cleaning before the arrival of the guests. and found several meteorite fragments there. The meteorite ended up in the collection and was named “Donahue”.

On October 9, 1992, at 8 o'clock in the evening, a stone meteorite weighing 12.3 kg fell in Peekskill (New York, USA) onto the trunk of a car parked in the yard and the impact split into several parts, severely denting the trunk. The young owner of the car ran out to hear the noise. The meteorite was still warm. She informed the nearest university. A few hours later, scientists, collectors, museum staff, the press, representatives of Sotheby's auction, etc. gathered at the house. Scientists confirmed that it was a stone meteorite (chondrite) and the owner received $70,000 for it. So the stone falling from the sky was fortunate.

Chicxulub Crater

A large terrestrial impact crater on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, now largely hidden by sedimentary rocks. It is believed to be associated with an impact event that occurred 65 million years ago, which apparently caused the mass extinction of living creatures, including dinosaurs.

Goba meteorite

The largest known meteorite in the world. Its dimensions are 3x3x1 m. It belongs to the type of iron meteorite and weighs approximately 55,000 kg. It is still at the crash site in Namibia, where it was discovered in 1928. The meteorite is covered with a layer of rusty, eroded material; taking into account erosion, the initial mass of the meteorite should exceed 73,000 kg.

Sikhote-Alin rain

A large meteor shower that fell on February 12, 1947 in eastern Siberia. The largest meteorite found weighed 1,745 kg, but it is estimated that thousands of fragments fell to the surface of the Earth, weighing up to 100 tons. Most of them were not found.

Anihito

The largest meteorite in museums in the world. This iron meteorite was found by Robert Peary in Greenland in 1897. Weight - 31 tons. Exhibited at the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

Interesting stories

October 9, 1992 America lived in anticipation of Columbus Day: the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by the great navigator was approaching. 18-year-old Michelle Knapp from the small town of Peekskill (New York) was watching TV in the evening. Suddenly she heard a loud noise on the street. The girl got scared and called the police, who found that this time the “intruder” was a space wanderer: next to the Napps’ damaged car lay a melted stone weighing almost 9 kg.

This case is the exception rather than the rule: stones or pieces of iron falling from the sky - they are called meteorites - behave surprisingly peacefully towards people. Only two cases have been reliably recorded

Town of Peekskill

When the Peekskill meteorite flew over the United States in 1992, 16 people managed to film it before it crashed into a car. This spectacular car crossed the airspace of several US states during its 40-second flight until it landed in Peekskill, a suburb of New York.

The most famous meteorite falls

While Colby Navarro was working at the computer, a boulder from outer space crashed through the roof of the house, hit the printer, hit the wall and remained lying next to the catalog box. This happened around midnight on March 26 in the town of Forest Park, Illinois (USA) near Chicago.

Meteorite in Chicago

meteorites hitting people (both without serious consequences), the material damage they caused is also negligible. There is no mysticism in this “friendliness”: a meteorite fall is a rare phenomenon and can happen with equal probability anywhere on the globe. And people still don’t take up much space on their planet. So the heavenly wanderers fall into the oceans, which account for more than 2/3 of the earth's surface, into vast deserts, forests, and polar regions - in full accordance with the laws of mathematical statistics. Therefore, any of us not only practically does not risk being hit by a meteorite, but even has very little chance of seeing it fall.

However, there is no need to despair. Everyone can observe the arrival of cosmic matter on Earth. It is enough to spend at least an hour on a clear night peering into the starry sky, and you will probably notice a fiery line cutting through the sky. This is a falling “star”, or meteor. Sometimes there are a lot of them - whole star showers. But no matter how many of them fly by, the appearance of the starry sky will not change: falling stars have nothing to do with real stars.

In the outer space surrounding our planet, many solid bodies of various sizes move - from dust grains to blocks with diameters of tens and hundreds of meters. The larger the body size, the less common they are. Therefore, dust grains collide with the Earth every day and hourly, and blocks - once every hundreds and even thousands of years.

The effects accompanying these collisions are also completely different. A small body weighing a fraction of a gram, invading the earth’s atmosphere at enormous speed (tens of kilometers per second), heats up from friction with the air and burns up completely at an altitude of 80–100 km. An observer on Earth sees a meteor at this moment. If a larger piece, for example the size of a fist, flies into the atmosphere, and not at the highest speed, the atmosphere can act as a brake and extinguish the cosmic speed before the piece burns up completely. Then its remainder will fall to the surface of the Earth. This is a meteorite. The fall of a meteorite is accompanied by a fireball flying across the sky and thunderous sounds. Few people have ever observed such phenomena. Finally, when the mass of the flying body is even greater, the atmosphere can no longer extinguish all its speed, and it crashes into the surface of the Earth, leaving a cosmic scar on it - a meteorite crater or crater.

If you look at the Moon through a telescope, you will see that its entire surface is literally pitted with such craters - traces of meteorite bombardment to which the Moon was subjected in the past. The Earth also received cosmic impacts in the past (see the article “Asteroid Threat”). Their traces in the form of meteorite craters (sometimes called astroblemes - “star wounds”) remained on the surface of our planet. The most famous of them, the crater in Arizona, is more than 1 km across and was formed 50 thousand years ago. The dry desert climate ensured its good preservation. External traces of other cosmic scars have been largely erased by subsequent geological processes. One of the largest such formations known today is located in northern Siberia. This is the Popigai meteorite crater with a diameter of 100 km.