Question
Question: How are meteoroids, meteors and meteorites related?...
How are meteoroids, meteors and meteorites related?
Solution
They are different celestial bodies but are quite closely related. The streaks of light are called meteors. The small rocky bodies that cause the light are called meteoroids. When a piece of meteoroid that survives through the trip to earth and land on earth are called meteorites.
Complete answer:
A body orbiting the sun that is smaller than an asteroid or comet is typically called a meteoroid. Meteoroids are actually fragments of asteroids (asteroids are the larger rocky bodies that orbit the sun and lie as a big belt between Mars and Jupiter). However, a few are moon rocks and some also come from Mars. These meteoroids hit earth’s atmosphere very fast. The meteoroids fall at a minimum speed of 25,000 miles per hour. At such a speed, the friction from the air begins to heat up the object. In fact, the air friction makes the object so hot that it begins to burn brightly across the sky as a meteor.
Mostly, the meteoroids did not just burn but also exploded into pieces. Usually, meteoroids burn up entirely as meteors. Only a few make their way through the atmosphere of the Earth to hit the ground. Those remnants are known as the meteorites.
Note:
In 1969, meteorites hit Chihuahua, Mexico as a result of the celestial light show burst through the sky. The meteorites obtained were named as Allende. The study of the Allende meteorites reveals that it is one of the oldest objects in the solar system.