Questions tagged [meteor]
Questions on objects passing through the atmosphere which leave visible wakes of incandescent material.
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How was this interstellar fireball observed and its trajectory analyzed?
The short, interesting paper Discovery of a Meteor of Interstellar Origin describes a proposed discovery of a second interstellar object. This one hit the Earth, and was discovered not by telescope, ...
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1answer
92 views
Could the Sun have liquid iron in orbit?
How close of an orbit to the Sun could an iron meteor get before it melts into a ball?
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1answer
77 views
Could pure iron from a star make it to Earth?
Since iron is a stars waste could a star that goes Super nova eject pure iron to travel across the galaxy?
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/35101/99-99-pure-iron-meteorite
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0answers
38 views
Was NASA's 2007 attempt to see helions during a solar eclipse successful? What instruments were used?
This answer about Sun-grazing comets led me eventually to Wikipedia's Helion (meteoroid), which has a one-sentence long article:
A Helion meteoroid is a meteoroid that arrives from the approximate ...
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0answers
34 views
What percentage of a lunar meteor strike is blown back into space?
Reading a discussion on another website, it was proposed that if a large meteor struck the moon, that a few days later, Earth would receive a meteor shower.
I thought about that and it seemed to me ...
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2answers
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Did I see a mentionable event in Germany early morning on 6th of February 2019?
Around 6.15am (GMT + 1) on the 6th of February 2019 I
was looking out of my window somewhat north, when I saw something one would probably call a shooting star. The features were:
A magnitude I ...
-3
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1answer
167 views
Why do shooting stars burn close to the ground sometimes?
I saw a shooting star as I was standing on the roof of my home. My home is double storey. And the height of that shooting star that I saw was maybe 10 to 13 meters. It was burned down at that height. ...
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2answers
87 views
What would it take to capture a passing asteroid or other celestial body into Earth's orbit?
Every once in a while, we have a celestial body that passes through our solar system. What would be needed to reel one of these in? Not crashing down to Earth, that would be bad, but say into a high ...
3
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1answer
58 views
Will comet 21P that just passed Earth on Sept 10 produce Draconid storm on Oct 9?
Comet 21P/Giaccobini-Zinner just made its closest pass to Earth and also made its Solar perihelion on the same day (Sept 10) which is roughly one month ahead of the annual Draconids meteor shower (Oct ...
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3answers
133 views
Which of the following is the correct usage: meteor / meteorite?
I hope a meteor falls on your head.
or
I hope a meteorite falls on your head.
And why?
Definition of meteor
Definition of meteorite
4
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2answers
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Water Content of Space Bodies
In general, are carbonaceous chondrites (CC) or comets more water rich?
I know that evidence has suggested that both CC and comets are partly composed of water, but which body is generally more water ...
2
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1answer
161 views
C-Type Asteroids and Carbonaceous Chondrite Meteorites
I was just wondering, what is the relationship between C-type asteroids and carbonaceous chondrite (CC) meteorites? Do CC meteorites come from C-type asteroids?
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1answer
71 views
Precautions when retrieving material originated from space
I'm assuming that when retrieving a meteor for study and later display, there are precautions taken against possible radiation coming from it. Is my assumption correct and are there other precautions ...
4
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1answer
84 views
Is it possible to image a meteor so the rock is visible?
I was wondering what one would see if they were to look through a telescope tracking a meteor as it shot through the sky. Technology aside, would one be able to see the object tumbling or would it ...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Is there a database for identifying the falling light I saw?
I witnessed a light fall from the sky. It was visibly about as bright as Mars, so brighter than meteorites I've seen, was just a point of light with no tail, and traveled much much faster than an ...
-1
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1answer
239 views
pH of meteorite [closed]
When a meteorite shower strikes a water body, what will be the pH of the water after the strike.
Will it always be $<7$
or
Will it always be $>7$
or
Will it always be $=7$
or
The answer ...
1
vote
1answer
128 views
How much time does it take for a meteor (shooting star) to touch the ground after its combustion? [closed]
I know that meteors that We see as shooting stars travel tens of thousands of kilometers per hour and are tiny as a grain of sand, but after hitting the atmosphere and burn I suppose that its ashes ...
6
votes
1answer
117 views
What explains this puzzling radio signature from a fireball?
September 21, 2017 a bright fireball over Holland was reported by hundreds of people. Several all-sky cameras recorded it as well as a special radio beacon set up to capture radio signatures of ...
3
votes
1answer
83 views
How long can afterglow last after a fireball?
I was watching the YouTube video Perseid Meteor Shower - Mojave Desert, California which looks East before sunrise, presumably in mid-August of 2016. I've made a GIF of a few seconds near the ...
1
vote
1answer
52 views
Two lights roughly 5 minutes apart about as bright as Mars or maybe Saturn
I'm in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and around 9:30 on August 4th 2017 I saw a bright light that got dimmer moving from the tree line to the east up and to my left fairly slowly, and steadily getting ...
3
votes
1answer
114 views
is there any mathematical formula, paper or anything that shows the probability of a meteor hitting a particular spot of moon's surface?
According to this article http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160209-meteorite-death-india-probability-odds/ a science professor at Tulane University made a paper to calculate the probability ...
4
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1answer
132 views
Meteor shower from Moon's “debris”
Did we ever witness a "meteor shower" which was actually dust or debris of some kind from our own Moon?
4
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2answers
587 views
Why are these objects moving at Vastly Different Speeds along the same orbit?
UPDATE: The on-line simulation seems to be working beautifully now! I'd recommend anyone to go back and take another look to enjoy both the mathematical beauty of orbital mechanics, and the aesthetics ...
4
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1answer
156 views
If Earth had no atmosphere, how many people would be killed by meteors every year? [closed]
Suppose those people engage in similar activity, walking on surface etc.
8
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1answer
371 views
Is it unlikely for a meteor to hit the day side of the earth?
I have binge watched a lot of documentaries and movies about meteors hitting the earth. The one pattern I have seen, even in the science-fact documentaries like Nova, is that the animations show ...
2
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0answers
61 views
What is the average Ni-Fe crystal length in iron meteorites?
Iron-core meteorites display an awesome criss-cross pattern known as the Widmanstätten pattern, shown below:
(photo by Dr. Patrick M. Len, taken from Wikipedia)
I TA for an intro-level astronomy/...
2
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0answers
461 views
What factors influence the Widmanstätten pattern in iron meteorites?
The cores of iron meteorites exhibit beautiful Widmanstätten patterns, as shown below in the Alvord meteorite (photo by Jim H):
I understand these patterns form when the molton nickel-iron core of ...
0
votes
1answer
104 views
Direction of Meteors [duplicate]
Do meteors always streak in the same direction? While I know it's not likely to be exactly the same direction, but generally speaking. Would one say meteors always travel, for example, east to west?
3
votes
4answers
875 views
What's the terminology of a meteor “ditch” when impact happens at an angle?
When a meteor hit the surface of a planet, it creates an impact crater. When an meteor hit the surface of a planet at an angle, like it usually happens in the movies, what do you call the long "ditch" ...
0
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1answer
70 views
How to calculate a meteor's entrance altitude to Earth's atmosphere? [closed]
Also, in which altitude did fireball went thermal explosion?
4
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1answer
648 views
Why do we keep orbiting through the Perseid meteors?
I understand that the meteors originated from the the comet Swift–Tuttle. Presumably they left the comet with some velocity relative to the solar system. As comets follow elliptical orbits presumably ...
0
votes
1answer
200 views
Can a meteor shower happen simultaneously all around the planet?
In the original book, the classic 1962 movie and the modern 2001 re-make for TV. The store "The day of the Triffits" depicts a meteor shower that happen all around the Earth at the same time, and ...
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vote
2answers
78 views
Does this video catch an Eta Aquarid - Earth skimming meteor?
I did a time-lapse animation looking towards the sunrise from Sydney, Australia on 25th of April. You can see it here around 1m 25s in (that link should jump to just before it appears very near where ...
0
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1answer
293 views
Why do most meteors vanish just before hitting the ground?
Many times we see in the sky that most of the meteor shower trails vanish when they are about to strike the earth several feet above the ground. Why does this happen? They could strike the earth's ...
4
votes
2answers
97 views
Do massive bolide entries coincide with meteor showers?
Are exceptionally large, bright, meteors (such as Tunguska or Chelyabinsk) more common during common meteor showers like the Perseids, or the Leonids?
If not, why is that? Do the meteor showers ...
4
votes
1answer
154 views
Earth's Versus Catastrophic Meteor
How evasive is the Earth to Catastrophic Meteors?
Google says the Earth is approximately 92.96 million miles from the Sun. It also says the suns radius is 432,474 miles.
Therefore, it is 93,392,474 ...
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votes
4answers
4k views
Is it possible for a virus to come from a meteorite?
So I am not a true scientist and I was just wondering if an extraterrestrial rock from space can have some dangerous unidentified virus or bacteria that can be deadly and wipe out the Earth if it not ...
6
votes
1answer
493 views
Is there any real chance of getting hit with a meteorite if we build a base on the moon?
I've been reading an article today on how the European Space Agency (ESA) has an interest in building a space village on the moon which will be 3D printed and assembled by robots. Eventually people ...
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vote
1answer
33 views
What visible differences do Geminids have to other meteors
Unlike all other meteor showers, which originate from comets, Geminids originate from asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Seeing a large number of meteors last night, I noticed they seemed to be much more green ...
7
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2answers
298 views
Was that actually a shooting star during the supermoon eclipse on September 27th 2015?
During the super-moon total lunar eclipse on September 27th a meteor-like streak passed very close within view of the event. It appeared to happen at the very middle, the maximum eclipse.
[...
4
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1answer
146 views
Are meteors and meteorites considered “Small Solar System Bodies”?
The difference between meteorites, meteors, and meteoroids is one of altitude relative to a celestial surface: in space, it's a meteoroid; in the atmosphere, it's a meteor; and on the surface, it's a ...
6
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1answer
493 views
What are the most valuable meteorites and asteroids in terms of precious metals?
There were some suggestions that asteroids could one day be mined for precious metals. I have found an outdated study that says that some siderites contain as much as 0.001% of gold:
http://pubs.usgs....
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Meteors made of differing substances. Will they all burn up?
If an object enters Earth's atmosphere, what determines whether it burns up or not?
Example
A feather is released from a space-ship 30,000 km away from Earth and falls under the influence of Earth's ...
4
votes
1answer
99 views
What's the distribution curve for meteor sightings?
I know that meteor showers have a "peak" observation time.
What does the distribution in time look like? Is one side of the peak steeper/shallower or longer/shorter than the other side, and if so, ...
2
votes
1answer
120 views
What is the probability of an astronomical body hitting you?
It appears that there is already a calculated ballpark for meteor fatalities, but what about other factors such as space trash, comets, and other miscellaneous items in space?
Is it possible to ...
1
vote
2answers
70 views
Are mass extinction events more likely during meteor showers / passing through comet debris?
Meteor showers happen when Earth passes through the debris left by a comet in its orbit. Meteors are generally tiny, like snow flings or pebbles and don't make it to the ground as meteorites. But ...
1
vote
1answer
118 views
What was the orbit of the meteor that impacted the Moon on 2013 September 11?
On 2013 September 11th, a meteor impacted the Moon leaving a 34-meter crater. So far the only info I've found was from youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCFDkj2JtyA) and this site: http://lroc....
3
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0answers
124 views
Did I see a meteor or a re-entry?
Last night (January 21, possibly 5:30 UTC), from my house in northern California, I saw a moving point of light in the sky, going west to east, crossing about 120 degrees of sky in 5 seconds or so.
...
3
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0answers
45 views
Where can I find historic rates of meteor impact events?
I have a friend that watches a lot of TV news and they have the impression that impact events are becoming more common than in recent memory. Does the evidence support or refute this?
Thinking it ...
3
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1answer
90 views
Are there many faint meteors that are too faint to see with the naked eye?
I remember one time a while back looking at the night sky through night vision goggles. One interesting thing I noticed is that there appeared to be many very faint meteors in the sky practically all ...
