UPDATE ALERT:The DESTRUCTION of the Earth ll Earth & Space Science~~ DISASTERS from METEORITES

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• published: 08 Dec 2016
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Meteorites On February 15, 2013 a meteor exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, southern Russia. Although no people or buildings were hit by the resulting meteorite, the shockwave from the exploding object injured about 1500 people and caused damage to 7200 buildings in the region. The fireball and was caught on video, mainly by dash cameras throughout the region, which were posted on the internet by news organizations individuals. Although the Chelyabinsk meteorite probably weighed about 12,000–13,000 metric tonnes, and measured 17 to 20 m in diameter before it exploded, sientists were quick to point out that it was very small compared to other objects that could potentially hit the earth. The explosion released energy estimated at about 500 kilotons of TNT (about 20 to 30 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). The event brought to the world's attention the very real hazards associated with the impact of objects from outer space. A Meteorite is a piece of rock from outer space that strikes the surface of the Earth. A Meteoroid is a meteorite before it hits the surface of the Earth. Meteors are glowing fragments of rock matter from outside the Earth's atmosphere that burn and glow upon entering the Earth's atmosphere. They are more commonly known as shooting stars. Some meteors, particularly larger ones, may survive passage through the atmosphere to become meteorites, but most are small objects that burn up completely in the atmosphere. They are not, in reality, shooting stars. Fireballs are very bright meteors. Meteor Showers - During certain times of the year, the Earth's orbit passes through a belt of high concentration of cosmic dust and other particles, and many meteors are observed. The Perseid Shower, results from passage through one of these belts every year in mid-August, and Leonid shower occurs in mid-November. Throughout history there have been reports of stones falling from the sky, but the scientific community did not recognize the extraterrestrial origin of meteorites until the 1700s. Within recent history meteorites have even hit humans- Origin of Meteorites Most meteorites appear to be fragments of larger bodies called parent bodies. These could have been small planets or large asteroids that were part of the original solar system. There are several possibilities as to where these parent bodies, or their fragments, originated. The Asteroid Belt The asteroid belt is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It consists of a swarm of about 100,000 objects called asteroids. Asteroids are small rocky bodies with irregular shapes that have a cratered surface. About 4,000 of these asteroids have been officially classified and their orbital paths are known. Once they are so classified they are given a name. The asteroids are either remnants of a planet that formed in the region between Mars and Jupiter but was later broken up by a collision with another planetary body, or are fragments that failed to accrete into a planet. The latter possibility is more likely because the total mass of the asteroids is not even equal to our moon. It does appear that some of the asteroids are large enough to have undergone internal differentiation. Differentiation is a process that forms layering in a planetary body (i.e. the Earth has differentiated into a core, mantle, and crust). If these larger asteroids did in fact undergo differentiation, then this could explain the origin of the different types of meteorites. Because of the shapes of the asteroids it also appears that some of them have undergone fragmentation resulting from collisions with other asteroids. Such collisions could have caused the larger bodies to be broken up into the smaller objects we observe as meteorites. The Asteroids as Parent Bodies of Meteorites known, but this is only a fraction of the total number. Many NEOs will eventually collide with the Earth. These objects have unstable orbits because they are under the gravitational influence of both the Earth and Mars. The source of these objects is likely the asteroid belt. http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/Natural_Disasters/impacts.htm