• Question: have you ever seen mediorites

    Asked by pielover2424 to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Amy Tyndall

      Amy Tyndall answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I have never seen a meteorite happen ‘live’ (i.e. when a piece of space rock hits the earth), but I have seen lots of meteors (when they’re entering the atmosphere), and you may have, too! They are also commonly called ‘shooting stars’. You tend to need a really dark, moonless night to be able to properly see them, and also be lucky enough to be facing in the right direction at the time!

      There are several special meteor showers every year, where your chances of seeing one are much higher. Here’s the dates for this year:

      http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors

    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Yup, but I didn’t find it myself, it was in an exhibit at a visitor center in Australia. It was really heavy since it has a lot of iron in it.
      g

    • Photo: Martin Archer

      Martin Archer answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I’ve seen meteorites in museums, but like Amy I’ve never seen one hit the ground.

      By the way, have you been looking out for comet PANSTARRS this past week ? You should be able to spot it just after sunset near the moon for the next few days.

Comments

  • Photo: pielover2424

    pielover2424 commented on :

    Thanks I wanted to know what a metorite looks like

    • Photo: Amy

      Amy commented on :

      I guess the closest approximation as to what meteorites look like (at least, once they hit the Earth) is like coal, but funkier! They contain all sorts of elements – iron, nickel, cobalt, carbon and sulphur are the main ones, and then various combinations of the five (and the percentage of each element makes a difference as to the what the meteorite looks like).

      This is a typical example of what they look like: