Meteorituri

Meteorituri is a term that refers to the remains of meteoroids that survive their passage through Earth's atmosphere and land on the surface. These celestial objects are fragments of asteroids, comets, or even planets that have entered Earth's gravitational pull. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, friction causes it to heat up and often glow, creating a phenomenon known as a meteor or shooting star. If a significant portion of the object survives this fiery descent and impacts the ground, it is then classified as a meteorite.

Meteorites are categorized into three main types based on their composition: stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites. Stony meteorites are the most common, making up about 94% of all observed falls. They are primarily composed of silicate minerals. Iron meteorites, while rarer, are composed mainly of iron and nickel alloys and are thought to originate from the cores of larger asteroids. Stony-iron meteorites are a mix of both silicate minerals and iron-nickel alloy, representing material from the boundary between a metallic core and rocky mantle of an asteroid.

The study of meteorites is crucial for understanding the formation and early history of the solar system. Their composition provides direct evidence of the materials present in the protoplanetary disk from which planets, including Earth, formed. Analysis of meteorites can reveal information about the conditions in the early solar nebula, the processes of planetesimal accretion, and the evolution of asteroid parent bodies. Some meteorites, particularly certain types of stony meteorites called chondrites, are considered primitive and have undergone little alteration since their formation, making them invaluable for studying the very beginning of our solar system.