Facts About Meteorites - strangefacts

• A meteorite is bits of the outer space that enter the earth surface surviving the impact. They are chunks and are no bigger than particles of dust and sand

• When in the outer space they are known as meteoroids but once when they enter the earth surface they are called meteors

• A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky, popularly known as the shooting star or falling star, which is produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere

• Meteoroids move very fast. Some enter the Earth's atmosphere at as much as 130,000 miles per hour

• Meteorites contain the oldest known rocks in our solar system

• They also contain 'pre-solar grains', which are minerals that formed around other stars probably billions of years before our solar system was born

• Up to 4 billion meteoroids fall to Earth everyday

• But most of them are too tiny to do any noticeable harm

• In 2004, a 30-foot-wide meteoroid hit the atmosphere over Antarctica, leaving 2 million pounds of dust in its wake

• That was enough to seed rain clouds and affect climate all the way on the other side of the planet

Facts About Halley's Comet - strangefacts

• Mark Twain was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen

• A comet is a relatively small solar system body that orbits the Sun. When close enough to the Sun they display a visible coma (a fuzzy outline or atmosphere due to solar radiation) and sometimes a tail

• The coma is created as the comet gets closer to the Sun, causing water, carbon dioxide and other compounds to sublime (quickly changing from solid to gas) from its surface

• Comets are made of ice, dust and small rocky particles

• The name comet comes from the Greek word meaning ‘hair of the head’, it came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle who observed comets as ‘stars with hair

• Short term comets (also known as periodic comets) have orbital periods of less than 200 years while long term comets have orbital periods of over 200 years

• In July 1994, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter. This event gave astronomers a unique opportunity to observe what happens when such a collision occurs

• The largest fragments were 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter and struck Jupiter at a speed of around 60 km/s (37 mi/s). The impact scars were clearly visible for months after the impact

• Shoemaker-Levy 9 was originally located by astronomers Eugene M. and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy in March 1993

• Halley’s Comet (or Comet Halley as it is also known) is the most well known comet