Explain that meteoroids move incredibly fast, and the Earth also orbits the Sun at a high speed. So if a meteoroid hits Earth, it will be moving very fast. Impact speeds can be up to 70 kilometres per second, which is the equivalent to , miles per hour or , kilometres per hour. This is the equivalent of flying round the equator 8 times every hour. When an object travelling so fast hits our atmosphere, the air resistance is massive students may be able to relate this to the force felt in a car when driving with the windows down.
The immense force causes the meteorite to burn, making it a meteor. Tell the class that very few of the meteors formed are seen. Ask them to think about why this is the case. Ask the students why they are referred to as shooting stars. Discuss with the class what people in the past may have thought shooting stars were. A meteor that does this is known as a meteorite. Show the class the photograph of a meteorite. This meteorite was found in a Saudi Arabian Desert.
Notice how it stands out against the yellow rocks. Explain to the class how it is much easier to find meteorites in places where they stand out. Ask the students to discuss where it would be easy and difficult to find meteorites.
Easy — deserts, plains, sand dunes and on ice in Antarctica. Difficult — forests, lakes and seas. Some meteorites are large enough and travel fast enough to create a crater on Earth when they impact. Ask the class what would the effect size be of a crater caused by a meteor. Mass, impact speed, impact direction, type of ground it lands on.
It was the first in the world to be positively identified as a meteor crater. It is possible to recall the extinction of the dinosaurs by the dust cloud from a meteor strike if the class has previously learned about this.
Watch the following video of the Chelyabinsk Meteor in Russia in www. The video may not be suitable for younger children. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. All external sites will open in a new browser. Home Page. World Business. World Sport. Special Reports. What's on. Business Traveller. Global Office. Principal Voices. Music Room. Talk Asia. They may contain some ice, and may be a mix of rocky material along with metal.
Take that same rocky, metallic body - and throw it into Earth's atmosphere We see meteors zipping across the sky every so often at night, and some are pretty spectacular. If it survives the trip through our atmosphere, and hits the ground, then it's a meteorite. A comet is also a body that orbits the Sun, but in general, they are composed much more of different ices - frozen water, methane, CO2, etc.
They usually orbit quite far out from the Sun, and occasionally, something will 'knock' them in toward the inner solar system As it whips around the sun, the tail always points away from the sun, due to the out-flowing solar wind.
Comets are called 'dirty snowballs', as there can be rocky material mixed in with the ices in it's mass. Every couple of seconds, a small bit of matter may be entering our atmosphere, somewhere The larger it is, the rarer it is - so, we'll see 'Shooting Stars' every so often - which is the size of sand grains; but a larger rock will appear brighter, and last longer in the sky.
If it's large enough, it may survive all the way to the Earth's surface. Well, the only verifiable event that a person was actually struck by a meteor - was a woman struck by one that crashed through the roof of her house, and bounced off furniture, striking her. There is a story of a man struck in Italy in the late 17th century, and he was killed , and there was a young boy in Uganda that had been injured by a meteor as well. Sometimes, the sudden heat causes the rock to explode into fragments, or simply break apart into a few shards.
The entry into the atmosphere slows the rock a lot depending on it's size and shape - but, it's going to have some velocity to it - several hundred miles per hour would be possible, depending on it's entry angle Even if the rock has been slowed by the atmosphere, and reached it's terminal velocity - imagine being hit by a stone that someone had thrown off the Empire State Building - it's going to do some damage, or even kill you - if it hits you.
Whether you would be alive enough to realise that a bullet went through your brain depends on what brainparts were affected. Chances of being hit are much smaller that dying from a coconut hitting you in the head killing you. Trending News. Kim says North Korea facing its 'worst-ever situation'. Former MMA fighter fatally shot in domestic dispute.
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