What is a meteorite?

When you see a shooting star, you’re actually watching a piece of space rock burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Those pieces, which have broken off from asteroids or comets in space, are called meteors. When many meteors burn up at the same time, that’s a meteor shower. Meteors that survive the trip through the atmosphere and land on Earth are called meteorites. They’re between the size of a pebble and a human fist. NASA estimates that more than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth, and about 99.8% of them came from asteroids. Meteorites can be hard to distinguish from Earth rocks, but they often have a shiny exterior created by the extreme heat in our atmosphere. About 60 meteorites have come from Mars, and 80 have come from the…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 256

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