the earths wind :: essays research papers

ExtrasMeteorsA brilliant meteor, called a fireball, may weigh many kilograms, but even a meteor weighing less than a gram can produce a beautiful trail. Some of these visitors from space ar large enough to move (at least partially) their trip through the standard pressure and impact the ground as meteorites. Fireballs are sometimes followed by trails of fair that persist for up to 30 minutes some, called bolides, explode with a loud thunderous sound.MeteoroidsThe term meteor comes from the Greek meteoron, meaning phenomenon in the sky. It is used to describe the streak of light produced as matter in the solar administration falls into Earths atmosphere creating temporary incandescence resulting from atmospheric friction. This typically occurs at heights of 80 to 110 kilometers (50 to 68 miles) above Earths surface. The term is also used more often than not with the word meteoroid referring to the particle itself without relation to the phenomena it produces when entering th e Earths atmosphere. A meteoroid is matter revolving around the sun or any object in interplanetary space that is too small to be called an asteroid or a comet. Even smaller particles are called micrometeoroids or cosmic dust grains, which includes any interstellar material that should happen to enter our solar system. A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the surface of the Earth without being completely vaporized.MeteoritesMeteorites ease up proven difficult to classify, but the three broadest groupings are stony, stony iron, and iron. The near common meteorites are chondrites, which are stony meteorites. Radiometric dating of chondrites has placed them at the age of 4.55 billion years, which is the approximate age of the solar system. They are considered primitive samples of early solar system matter, although in many cases their properties have been change by thermal metamorphism or icy alteration. CometsNow we know that comets are lumps of ice and dust that periodically come into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its outer reaches, and that some comets make repeated trips. When comets gravel close enough to the Sun, heat makes them start to evaporate. Jets of gas and dust coordinate long tails that we can see from Earth. These tails can sometimes be millions of miles long. In 1985-1986, a spacecraft called Giotto visited the most famous comet, Halley, on Halleys most recent visit to the inner solar system.