Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite
A Meteoroid is a small rocky piece in our solar system. They range in size from tiny dust particles to around 10 meters in
diameter. One of the largest meteorites found on earth weighs roughly 60 Tons. A meteoroid that burns up as it passes
through the Earth’s atmosphere is known as a Meteors.The burning is due to the friction between meteoroid and the Earth’s
atmosphere. If you’ve ever looked up at the sky at night and seen a streak of light or ‘shooting star’ what you are actually
seeing is a meteor.
A meteoroid that survives falling through the Earth’s atmosphere and colliding with the Earth’s surface is known as
meteorites. They are actually fragments of an asteroid broken in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter a long time
ago.
Most meteoric samples are either iron (actually nickel-iron alloy), stony, which are predominately rocky-silicates; or stony-
iron.
Surface of moon The Moon is like a desert with plains, mountains, and valleys. It also has many craters, which are holes created when
meteorites hit the Moon’s surface at a high speed. The surface of the moon is scarred with millions of impact craters.
There is no atmosphere on the moon to protect its surface from the bombardments of meteorites.
These objects hit the Moon at a wide range of speeds, about 15 kilometers per second, thus creating craters on its entire
surface.
The craters range in size up to many hundreds of kilometers. Most of the craters on the Moon are circular. The Earth has
been struck by many meteorites, some quite large. The Barringer Crater in Arizona is 1.2 Km across and 200 meters deep,
and was formed about 49,000 years ago by the impact of a 50 meter nickel/iron meteorite traveling at a speed of 11
kilometers per second.
The few craters are not circular (No one knows the exact reason).
Zia Ahmed Khan
email: khanziaahmed50@gmail.com
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