By William Orem Posted May 24, Media Player Error Update your browser or Flash plugin. What Is A Shooting Star? Orbits Take Control But there's another reason. It's like two cars passing in opposite directions.
Faster Meteors In general, the fastest meteors to enter our atmosphere move at about 26 miles-per-second. These kinds burn up and are gone in less than one second. Slower Meteors Meteors that come from the other direction, however, are essentially chasing the earth through space. Es En. Economy Humanities Science Technology. Multimedia OpenMind books Authors. Featured author. Claus Leggewie. Latest book. Work in the Age of Data. Start The Hunt for Shooting Stars. Science Physics. Astronomy Astrophysics Science Space Universe.
Ventana al Conocimiento Knowledge Window. Explore as a Researcher Student or Teacher Member of public. Who we are. Home th Anniversary Ask me a question Why do meteors fly fast? Share our content. Why do meteors fly fast? Larger impacts cause a rebound that creates a central peak; slipping along the rim forms terraces.
The largest impacts form basins in which multiple rebounds form several inner peaks. Large meteors can explode above the surface, causing widespread damage from the blast and ensuing fire. This happened in over Siberia, in what's called the Tunguska event. On June 30, , across hundreds of miles, witnesses saw a ball of fire streak through the sky, suggesting the meteor entered the atmosphere at an oblique angle.
It exploded, sending out hot winds and loud noises and shook the ground enough to break windows in nearby villages. Small particles blown into the atmosphere lit the night sky for several days.
No meteorite was ever found, and for years many scientists thought the devastation was caused by a comet. Now, the prevailing theory holds that a meteor exploded just above the surface. A similar event occurred over Chelyabinsk, Russia , when a meter rock exploded 12 to 15 miles above the Earth's surface on Feb.
Although the Russian event brought into focus the possible danger Earth could suffer from space rocks, most meteors don't cause nearly as much damage.
Still, NASA and other entities keep careful track of all asteroids visible from Earth, and are actively engaged in discovering as many asteroids as possible — especially the ones that are larger and would pose more of a theoretical threat to Earth.
Asteroid orbits are plotted and tracked to see if they will intersect with Earth in the future. In ancient times, objects in the night sky conjured superstition and were associated with gods and religion. But misunderstandings about meteors lasted longer than they did about most other celestial objects. Meteorites the pieces that make it to Earth were long ago thought to be cast down as gifts from angels. Others thought the gods were displaying their anger.
As late as the 17th century, many believed they fell from thunderstorms they were nicknamed "thunderstones". Many scientists were skeptical that stones could fall from the clouds or the heavens, and often they simply didn't believe the accounts of people who claimed to have seen such things.
In , a fireball exploded over Connecticut, and several meteorites rained down. By then the first handful of asteroids had been discovered, and a new theory emerged suggesting meteorites were broken bits off asteroids or other planets.
A theory that still holds.
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