News tagged with meteorite
Mars methane linked to meteorites
Tiny amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere may come not from living things, but from meteorites on the red planet's surface, the latest findings suggest.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 31, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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Rare meteorite fragment donated to UC Davis geologist
UC Davis alumnus Gregory Jorgensen ’90, Ph.D. ’95, presented UC Davis geologist Qing-Zhu Yin with a donation today, May 30, of a meteorite piece that fell beside his driveway in Coloma, Calif.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 31, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
0
Life on Mars: just add carbon and stir
The building blocks of life have been discovered on Mars ... in Martian meteorites that fell to Earth.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 29, 2012 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
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Meteorite hunt goes on, needs public's help
(Phys.org) -- A University of California, Davis, geologist is appealing for public help in tracking down pieces of the meteorite that blew up over El Dorado County on April 22.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 28, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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Organic carbon from Mars, but not biological
(Phys.org) -- Molecules containing large chains of carbon and hydrogen--the building blocks of all life on Earth--have been the targets of missions to Mars from Viking to the present day. While these molecules ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 24, 2012 |
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Research team claims to have found evidence Lake Cheko is impact crater for Tunguska Event
(Phys.org) -- Early on the morning of June 30th, 1908, a huge explosion occurred in a remote part of Siberia near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. So great was the blast that trees were knocked down in neat ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 21, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (25) |
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Meteorite discovery spurs hunt for more pieces
(Phys.org) -- Meteorite fragments were recently scattered around Sutter’s Mill in California, the same region where the first nugget of gold was found that sparked the Gold Rush in 1848. Scientists believe ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 11, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Asteroid collision that spawned Vesta's asteroid family occurred more recently than thought
A team of researchers led by a NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) member based at Southwest Research Institute has discovered evidence that the giant impact crater Rheasilvia on Asteroid (4) Vesta was created ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 10, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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NASA researchers search for meteorite fragments in a zeppelin
It's not every day that NASA descends on your backyard, hunting for clues to extraterrestrial life.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 08, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Scientists to use blimp to look for meteorites
(AP) -- A group of scientists will board a blimp to search for meteorites that rained over California's gold country last month.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 03, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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Fragments of meteorite worth their weight in gold
Actually it’s more like 3.5 times their weight in gold, according to today’s market value… and meteorite experts from SETI and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 02, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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NASA asks public to provide videos and photos of meteor
(Phys.org) -- NASA and the SETI Institute are asking the public for more information to help find amateur photos and video footage of the daylight meteor that illuminated the sky over the Sierra Nevada mountains and created ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Meteorites found in Calif. along path of fireball
Robert Ward has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years so he knew he'd found something special in the Sierra foothills along the path of a flaming fireball that shook parts of Northern ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Martian meteorite touches down at the University of Glasgow
(Phys.org) -- After hundreds of thousands of years drifting in space, a piece of the rocky surface of Mars has made its way into the hands of scientists at the University of Glasgow.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 24, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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12-mile-high Martian dust devil caught in act
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high (20 kilometers) was captured whirling its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14. It was imaged by the High Resolution ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 05, 2012 |
5 / 5 (10) |
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Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. While in space it is called a meteoroid. When it enters the atmosphere, impact pressure causes the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball, also known as a meteor or shooting star. The term bolide refers to either an extraterrestrial body that collides with the Earth, or to an exceptionally bright, fireball-like meteor regardless of whether it ultimately impacts the surface.
More generally, a meteorite on the surface of any celestial body is a natural object that has come from elsewhere in space. Meteorites have been found on the Moon and Mars.
Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transited the atmosphere or impacted the Earth are called falls. All other meteorites are known as finds. As of mid-2006, there are approximately 1,050 witnessed falls having specimens in the world's collections. In contrast, there are over 31,000 well-documented meteorite finds.
Meteorites have traditionally been divided into three broad categories: stony meteorites are rocks, mainly composed of silicate minerals; iron meteorites are largely composed of metallic iron-nickel; and, stony-iron meteorites contain large amounts of both metallic and rocky material. Modern classification schemes divide meteorites into groups according to their structure, chemical and isotopic composition and mineralogy. See meteorites classification.
For more information about Meteorite, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
