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Tons of cosmic material, made of stone and
metal, reach Earth's atmosphere every day. Most of this matter burns up,
but the largest fragments survive their fiery passage and land as meteorites.
Meteorites are ambassadors from afar, providing information about our Solar
System's chemical and mineralogical makeup.
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meteorites formed in asteroids, small planetary bodies that orbit the sun
between Mars and Jupiter. Collisions among asteroids, and the
gravitational influence of Mars and Jupiter, occasionally launch
asteroidal fragments into trajectories that intersect Earth's orbit. |
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Meteorites that
were
observed to fall and were collected shortly afterward are known as "falls".
Most meteorites, however, fell long ago unseen by humans. These
meteorites, if we are lucky enough to find them, are referred to as
"finds".
Meteorite falls
are rare events, but countless meteorites have accumulated in Earth's soils over geologic time. People
working close to the land, such as farmers and ranchers, are most likely to
recover meteorites. Farmers that encounter meteorites often remove these
unwanted hindrances, tossing them into "the rock pile", laying them
along fences, or even putting them to good use (several meteorites were used as
doorstops prior to being properly recognized).
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The objective
of this website is to describe the physical characteristics of meteorites, so
that more samples may be identified and preserved for science.
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