The smallest units in the Solar System

Most visible meteors wind in size between that of a grain of gumption and that of a small pebble, weighing less than one or two grams. The majority of meteors originate from comets, and the remainder have their origins in asteroids. Meteors of asteroidal origin are often composed of fleshy stony or metallic substantial, spell those which originate from comets are composed of a loose conglomerate of material, which is why these last mentioned are sometimes referred to as "dustballs."

The bright cremate of enlighten from a meteor is caused by its high kinetic heartiness when the meteoroid collides with the cash machine (Bedient www.corvis.com; NASA www.nasa.gov). Many meteors enter the airwave at speeds of from 60 km/sec to 70 km/sec, while others may travel as slowly as 11 km/sec. Meteoroids travel at many different speeds because the land itself is traveling at 30 km/sec in its orbit around the sun. On the trailing edge of the public - the evening side - the meteoroids must catch up with the Earth's atmosphere to cause a meteor, and thus tend to be slow. On the leading edge of the Earth - the morning side - meteoroids jackpot collide head on with the atmosphere, so they tend to be fast.

Collision of a meteoroid with air molecules at such(prenominal) high kinetic energy levels ionizes and excites a long, thin towboat of atmospheric molecul

"Listening For Meteors." Astronomy. 29(9) (2001): 24.

(Bedient www.corvis.com; NASA www.nasa.gov)

issue 1. Photograph showing meteor with afterglow and wake; persistent produce from a meteor (NASA www.nasa.gov).

es along its path, and this is the origin of the flash of light across the sky seen by observers on the terms (Bedient www.corvis.com). The meteor trail is usually less than one beatnik in diameter, but tens of kilometers in length. When the meteoroids collide with the atmosphere, electrons are stark from them, and when these stripped atoms recapture electrons, light is emitted (NASA www.nasa.gov).

The color emitted depends on the temperature, and the material being excited, as shown in the following chart:

apiece day, as many as four billion meteors very reach the Earth's surface, although most of them are very small in size (NASA www.nasa.gov). Their mass ingraineds several loads, but this is minuscule compared to the total mass of the Earth, which is estimated to be 6.6 x 1021 tons. However, large meteors do at times reach the Earth's surface. Two large meteors (bolides), with diameters between six and 10 feet land in the Pacific Ocean off the brink of Mexico in August 2000 and April 2001 ("Listening" 24). The August 2000 meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere several hundred miles west of northern Baja, California in Mexico, and was estimated to have the energy equivalent of 2,000 to 3,000 tons of TNT. The April 2001 meteor landed off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico, and was estimated to have the energy equivalent of 6,000 to 8,000 tons of TNT. Both meteors broke up into thousands of pieces before a a few(prenominal) entered the ocean, but the April 2001 meteor was one of the five brightest meteors ever recorded.

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