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METEOR
A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a streak of light via its rapid motion and sometimes also by shedding glowing material in its wake. Although a meteor may seem to be a few thousand feet from the Earth, meteors typically occur in the mesosphere at altitudes from . The root word ''meteor'' comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek ''meteōros'', meaning "high in the air". Millions of meteors occur in Earth's atmosphere daily. Most meteoroids that cause meteors are about the size of a grain of sand, i.e. they are usually millimeter-sized or smaller. Meteoroid sizes can be calculated from their mass and density which, in turn, can be estimated from the observed meteor trajectory in the upper atmosphere. Meteors may occur in meteor shower, showers, which arise when Earth passes throu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteorite
A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause it to heat up and radiate energy. It then becomes a meteor and forms a Meteoroid#Fireball, fireball, also known as a shooting star; astronomers call the brightest examples "Bolide#Astronomy, bolides". Once it settles on the larger body's surface, the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorites vary greatly in size. For geologists, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater. Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transit the atmosphere and impact event, impact Earth are called meteorite falls. All others are known as meteorite finds. Meteorites have traditionally been divided into three broad categories: stony meteorites that are rocks, mainly composed of sil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteoroid
A meteoroid ( ) is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are distinguished as objects significantly smaller than ''asteroids'', ranging in size from grains to objects up to wide. Objects smaller than meteoroids are classified as ''micrometeoroids'' or ''space dust''. Many are fragments from comets or asteroids, whereas others are impact event, collision impact space debris, debris ejected from bodies such as the Moon or Mars. The visible passage of a meteoroid, comet, or asteroid atmospheric entry, entering Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, and a series of many meteors appearing seconds or minutes apart and appearing to originate from the same fixed point in the sky is called a meteor shower. An estimated 25 million meteoroids, micrometeoroids and other space debris enter Earth's atmosphere each day, which results in an estimated 15,000 tonnes of that material entering the atmosphere each year. A ''meteorite'' is the remains of a meteoroid that has surv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteor Shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Very intense or unusual meteor showers are known as meteor outbursts and meteor storms, which produce at least 1,000 meteors an hour, most notably from the Leonids. The Meteor Data Centre lists over 900 suspected meteor showers of which about 100 are well established. Several organizations point to viewing opportunities on the Internet. NASA maintains a daily map of active meteor showers. Historical developments A meteor shower in August 1583 was recorded in the Timbuktu manuscripts.Abraham, Curtis"Stars of the Sahara" ''New Scientist'', issue 2617,15 August 2007, page 39–41 I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteor Air Burst
A meteor air burst is a type of air burst in which a meteoroid explodes after entering a planetary body's atmosphere. This fate leads them to be called fireballs or bolides, with the brightest air bursts known as superbolides. Such meteoroids were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of meters in diameter. This separates them from the much smaller and far more common " shooting stars", that usually burn up quickly upon atmospheric entry. The most powerful meteor air burst in the modern era was the 1908 Tunguska event. During this event a stony meteoroid about in size exploded at an altitude of over a sparsely populated forest in Siberia. The resulting shock wave flattened an estimated 80 million trees over a area, and may have killed 3 people. Extremely bright fireballs traveling across the sky are often witnessed from a distance, such as the 1947 Sikhote-Alin meteor and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, both over Russia. If the bolide is large enough ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonids
The Leonids ( ) are a prolific annual meteor shower associated with the comet 55P/Tempel–Tuttle, Tempel–Tuttle, and are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years. The Leonids get their name from the location of their Radiant (meteor shower), radiant in the constellation Leo (constellation), Leo: the meteors appear to radiate from that point in the sky. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek and Latin, Latin with the prefix ''Leo-'' referring to the constellation and the suffix ''-ids'' signifying that the meteor shower is the offspring of, descendent of, the constellation Leo. Earth moves through meteoroid streams left from passages of a comet. The streams consist of solid particles, known as meteoroids, normally ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun once within Jupiter's orbit. Due to the Retrograde and prograde motion, retrograde orbit of 55P/Tempel–Tuttle, the Leonids are fast moving st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Meteor Society
The American Meteor Society, Ltd. (AMS) is a non-profit scientific organization established to encourage and support the research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in the field of meteor astronomy. Its affiliates observe, monitor, collect data on, study, and report on meteors, meteor showers, meteoric fireballs, and related meteoric phenomena. The society publishes observations and scientific interpretations quarterly in '' Meteor Trails, The Journal of American Meteor Society''. Once per year they give the '' American Meteor Society Award'' to a person who has contributed to research on meteors. They also provide an annual research grant to a student of SUNY-Geneseo who has contributed to meteor research or to the AMS. History The society was founded in 1911 by Charles P. Olivier of the Leander McCormick Observatory. The initial enrollment was fifteen members. These were recruited by Olivier by letter. The first paper based on the obs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteor Procession
A meteor procession occurs when an Earth-grazing meteor breaks apart, and the fragments travel across the sky in the same path. According to physicist Donald Olson, only four occurrences are known: * 18 August 1783 Great Meteor * 20 July 1860 Great Meteor; believed by Olson to be the event referred to in Walt Whitman's poem ''Year of Meteors, 1859–60'' * 21 December 1876 Great Meteor; sighted over Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania * 9 February 1913 Great Meteor Procession; a chain of slow, large meteors moving from northwest to southeast, sighted over North America, particularly in Canada, the North Atlantic and the Tropical South Atlantic See also * * * * * * * * References External links Meteors, Meteoroids, and Meteorites Meteoroids {{meteoroid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth-grazing Fireball
An Earth-grazing fireball (or Earth grazer) is a fireball (meteor), fireball, a very bright meteor that enters Earth’s atmosphere and leaves again. Some fragments may impact Earth as meteorites, if the meteor starts to break up or explodes in mid-air. These phenomena are then called Earth-grazing meteor processions and bolides. Famous examples of Earth-grazers are the 1972 Great Daylight Fireball and the Meteor Procession of July 20, 1860.. Txstate.edu (2010-05-28). Retrieved on 2013-10-19.150-year-old meteor mystery solved Overview As an Earth-grazer Atmospheric entry, passes through the atmosphere its mass and velocity are changed, so that its orbit, after it re-enters spac ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bolide
A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large Impact crater, crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a synonym for a Meteoroid#Fireball, fireball, sometimes specific to those with an apparent magnitude of −4 or brighter. Definitions The word ''bolide'' (; from Italian language, Italian via Latin, ) may refer to somewhat different phenomena depending on the context in which the word appears, and readers may need to make inferences to determine which meaning is intended in a particular publication. An early usage occurs in ''Natural History (Pliny), Natural History'', where Pliny the Elder describes two types of prodigium, prodigies, "those which are called lampades and those which are called bolides". At least one of the prodigies described by Pliny (a "spark" that fell, grew to the "size of the moon", and "returned into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superbolide
A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a synonym for a fireball, sometimes specific to those with an apparent magnitude of −4 or brighter. Definitions The word ''bolide'' (; from Italian via Latin, ) may refer to somewhat different phenomena depending on the context in which the word appears, and readers may need to make inferences to determine which meaning is intended in a particular publication. An early usage occurs in ''Natural History'', where Pliny the Elder describes two types of prodigies, "those which are called lampades and those which are called bolides". At least one of the prodigies described by Pliny (a "spark" that fell, grew to the "size of the moon", and "returned into the heavens") has been interpreted by astronomers as a bolide in the modern sense. His d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weston Meteorite
The Weston meteorite is an H4 ordinary chondrite meteorite which fell to earth above the town of Weston, Connecticut on the morning of December 14, 1807. History The Weston meteorite fell to earth above the town of Weston, Connecticut at approximately 6:30 in the morning on December 14, 1807. The meteor fall was widely witnessed and reported in newspaper accounts at the time. Eyewitnesses reported three loud explosions with stone fragments falling in at least six locations. Debris field & naming Currently none of the strewn field (the debris field where the bulk of the fragments fell) was located on is in the town of Weston, but is primarily located in neighboring Easton. In 1807 the land that would later become the town of Easton was within and part of the town of Weston, hence the name ''Weston meteorite''. The majority of the debris field is located in the eastern part of the present day town of Easton - in and around the Easton Reservoir. The remaining part of the de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft (nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages), mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in-Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, space debris includes fragments from disintegration, erosion, or collisions; solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft; unburned particles from solid rocket motors; and even paint flecks. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft. Space debris is typically a negative externality. It creates an external cost on others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit, a cost that is typically not taken into account nor fully accoun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
