From time to time, various cosmic bodies fall on our Earth . They are large and small, invisible and intimidating, iron and silicate, the most diverse. The scientific name for a shooting star is a meteorite. This definition applies to bodies larger than 10 microns. Smaller space guests are called micrometeorites.
What are meteorites
Almost 93% of meteorites are stone. Among them there are chondrites, consisting of silicate spheres (ordinary, carbonaceous and enstatinic), and achondrites, which have undergone melting and the concomitant composition differentiation into silicates and metals. The remaining bodies are divided into iron-stone (pallasites and mesosiderites) and purely iron.
It is important to indicate that a meteorite is not a meteor. These concepts mean different things. The body itself is called a meteorite, and a fire trail formed in the atmosphere during its fall is called a meteor. It is he who is mistaken for a “shooting star”, on which romantically-minded personalities make wishes.
Meteorite sizes
The sizes of meteorites can be very different. Some of them are with a grain of sand, others reach tens of tons. Representatives of the scientific world claim that during the year 21 tons of extraterrestrial bodies fall on our planet, while representatives of the stream can weigh from a few grams to 1000 kilograms.
The largest meteorites in the history of the Earth
Sutter Mill fell to Earth on April 22, 2012. His path ran over Nevada and California, and the speed exceeded 29 kilometers per second. Parts of various sizes broke off the meteorite above these states, while the main part reached Washington and exploded directly above it. The force of the explosion was equal to 4,000 tons of TNT. Scientists know the age of the celestial wanderer - more than 4,500 million years.
In Peru, near Lake Titicaca and near the Bolivian border, on September 15, 2007, a cosmic body fell, fragments of which were not found. Only a pit with a depth of 6 and a diameter of 30 meters, filled with muddy water, testifies to what happened. At the time of the incident, according to local residents, the water boiled in a fountain. There is a version that the meteorite contained poisonous substances, since eyewitnesses began to have severe migraines.
In June 1998, on the 20th day, a space guest weighing 820 kg landed on a cotton field near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench. The diameter of the funnel was about 5 meters. The International Meteorite Society calculated the age of the body - more than 4 billion years - and recognized it as the largest of all that fell in the CIS, and the third largest in the world.
On a May night of 1990, from the 17th to the 18th, twenty-five kilometers from Sterlitamak, a 315-kilogram meteorite fell. This event took place on a state farm field, in the soil of which a 10-meter crater was formed. At the same time, the cosmic body itself was immersed 12 m deep into the earth.
The largest of the found is considered a Namibian meteorite. This iron miracle is named after the Goba and has a volume of 9 cubic meters and a weight of 66 tons. Its fall occurred 80,000 years ago, but this ingot was discovered only in 1920. Now it is a local attraction.