Our planet is surrounded by a huge number of different celestial bodies. Small of them, when falling to the Earth, go unnoticed, and the fall of larger ones, weighing up to several hundred kilograms and even tons, leaves various consequences. Scientists from the Canadian Astrophysical Institute in Ottawa claim that a meteor shower with a total weight of more than 20 tons hits the Earth's surface every year. The weight of individual meteorites varies from a few grams to tons.
(23 photos of meteorites + video)
The largest meteorites that hit the Earth
On April 22, 2012, a celestial body appeared near the surface of the Earth, moving at great speed. Flying over the US states of Nevada and California, scattering hot particles, the meteorite exploded in the sky over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT, which is almost eighty times less than the power. Research by scientists has established that the Sutter Mill meteorite was formed during the formation of solar system.
A year has already passed since February 2012, when hundreds of meteorite stones fell on an area of 100 km in China. The event, out of the ordinary, is still remembered by eyewitnesses. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. 
Near Lake Titicaca in Peru, in the fall of 2007, a meteorite fell, which eyewitnesses observed as a falling body engulfed in fire. The fall of the meteorite was accompanied by a loud noise, reminiscent of the sound of a falling plane. 
A crater 6 m deep and 30 m in diameter formed at the site of the fall, from which a fountain escaped hot water. The consequences of the meteorite fall are still felt by local residents.
Most likely included celestial body poisonous substances were included, 1,500 people living in the area closest to the crash site suffer from severe headaches.
Near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench in the summer of 1998, a meteorite fell, which received the name of the city. The fall of the celestial body was accompanied by a bright light. At the site of the fall of the largest (weighing 820 kg) fragment of a meteorite, a five-meter funnel formed. Fortunately, none of local residents was not injured, the meteorite fell on a cotton field. 
Scientists have established the age of the Turkmen meteorite - more than 4 billion years, it is the largest among the stone meteorites that fell on the territory of the CIS. Among all the known stone meteorites that fell to Earth, Kunya-Urgench is the third largest. Most often, stone meteorites fall on the Earth, their share is almost 93% of all types of celestial bodies that have fallen on the planet. The Chelyabinsk meteorite, according to the first estimates of scientists, was iron.
Meteorite Sterlitamak, 1990
On the night of May 17, 1990, a celestial body weighing 315 kilograms fell 20 kilometers from Sterlitamak. The meteorite, called Sterlitamak, left a crater 10 meters in diameter at the place of impact on the state farm field. The largest fragment was not found immediately, but only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters. Now it is an exhibit of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography. A meteorite weighing 315 kilograms has dimensions of 0.5x0.4x0.25 meters.
In March 1976, China's Jilin Province experienced the largest rain of stony meteorites in history. The fall of cosmic bodies to the Earth continued for 37 minutes, the fall speed reached 12 kilometers per second. About a hundred meteorites were found, the largest of them was named Jilin (Girin), its weight is 1.7 tons. 
In the winter of 1947, a meteorite in the form of iron rain fell in the Far Eastern Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains. Having been crushed in the atmosphere as a result of the explosion, the meteorite turned into many fragments that fell over an area of 10 square kilometers. More than 30 craters were formed in the places where the debris fell, from 7 to 28 m in diameter, up to 6 m deep. 
About 27 tons of meteorite fragments were found over a vast area. 
The largest meteorite known to science today is called Goba. Iron giant volume 9 cubic meters and weighing almost 66 tons fell to the surface of the Earth in prehistoric times. Having lain on Earth for about 80,000 years, in 1920 a meteorite was found in Namibia. 
The Goba meteorite is the heaviest of all space bodies that have ever hit the surface of our planet. It consists mainly of iron. Now it is the largest piece of iron of natural origin on Earth. It still lies in Namibia, in southwest Africa. Since its discovery, the meteorite has lost almost 6 tons in weight as a result of scientific research, erosion and the invasion of vandals. Now it weighs 60 tons. 
The mysterious Tunguska meteorite is considered one of the most studied on the planet, but continues to be the most mysterious phenomenon of the beginning of the last century. June 30, 1908 early morning a giant fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei river basin. Above the uninhabited area of the taiga, the object exploded at an altitude of 7-10 km. The blast wave went around Earth twice and was of such power that it was recorded by all the observatories of the world. 
Explosion power Tunguska meteorite equates to the most powerful energy hydrogen bomb- 40-50 kilotons. The space giant, presumably weighing from 100 thousand tons to 1 million tons, was rushing at a speed of tens of kilometers per second.
The blast wave knocked down trees over an area of more than 200 square kilometers, and windows were shattered in houses. Within a radius of 40 kilometers, animals died and people were injured. After the explosion, an intense glow of the sky and clouds was observed for several more days over a vast territory. 
The answer to the question: what was it? - still no. If the fireball was a meteorite, then a giant crater at least 500 m deep should have appeared at the site of impact. But in all subsequent years it was never found. The Tunguska meteorite remains a 20th-century mystery. The celestial body exploded in the air, the consequences of this were colossal, and no remnants or debris were ever found on Earth. 
Meteor shower, USA, 1833
On an autumn November night in 1833, a meteor Rain. Within 10 hours, meteorites of various sizes fell on the Earth's surface, the total number of which exceeded 240,000. The source of this phenomenon was the most powerful of the currently known meteorite streams, which is called the Leonids.
About two dozen meteor showers pass near the Earth every day. Scientists know about 50 comets that theoretically have the potential to cross the earth's orbit. Approximately once every ten years, the Earth collides with relatively small cosmic bodies. Despite the fact that the movement of celestial bodies is quite well studied and predicted, the next collision of a meteorite with the Earth's surface is always a mysterious and surprising phenomenon for most of the inhabitants of the planet.
HD Videos of Meteor Shower
Well, since everyone is talking about meteorites and their falls on our planet,
I propose to get acquainted with the top 10 largest meteorites that fell to Earth.
This meteorite called Sutter Mill appeared on the Earth on April 22, 2012, moving at a breakneck speed of 29 km / s.
It flew over the states of Nevada and California, scattering its red-hot ones, and exploded over Washington.
The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT.
For comparison, the power of yesterday's meteorite explosion when falling on
Chelyabinsk amounted to 300 tons of TNT. The scientists found out
that the Sutter Mill meteorite appeared in the early days
the existence of our solar system, and the cosmic body is the progenitor
formed over 4566.57 million years ago.
Fragments of the Sutter Mill meteorite:
Almost a year ago, on February 11, 2012, about a hundred meteorite stones fell
on an area of 100 km in one of the regions of China.
The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. It is believed that meteorites
came from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
This meteorite fell in Peru near Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia.
Eyewitnesses claimed that at first there was a loud noise,
similar to the sound of a falling plane, but then they saw a certain falling body, engulfed in flames.
Bright trace from heated to white heat cosmic body,
entering the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor.
At the site of the fall from the explosion, a crater with a diameter of 30 and
6 meters deep, from which a fountain of boiling water gushed.
Probably, the meteorite contained toxic substances, since
1,500 people living nearby developed severe headaches.
Location of the meteorite impact in Peru:
By the way, most often stone meteorites (92.8%), consisting mainly of silicates, fall to the Earth.
The meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk was iron, according to the first estimates. Fragments of the Peruvian meteorite:
The meteorite fell near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench, hence its name.
Before the fall, the inhabitants saw a bright light. The largest part of the meteorite, weighing 820 kg,
fell into a cotton field, forming a funnel about 5 meters.
This one, over 4 billion years old, has been certified by the International Meteoritic Society and
considered the largest among stone meteorites of all
falling in the CIS and the third in the world. Fragment of the Turkmen meteorite:
Iron meteorite Sterlitamak weighing 315 kg fell on the field of the state farm
20 km west of the city of Sterlitamak on the night of May 17-18, 1990.
When a meteorite fell, a crater with a diameter of 10 meters was formed.
At first, small metal fragments were found,
and only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters, the largest fragment weighing 315 kg was found.
Now the meteorite (0.5 x 0.4 x 0.25 meters) is in
Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Scientific Center Russian Academy Sciences. Fragments of a meteorite.
On the left is the same fragment weighing 315 kg:
In March 1976, in the Chinese province of Jilin,
the largest meteor rock shower in the world, lasting 37 minutes.
Space bodies fell to the earth at a speed of 12 km/sec. Fantasy on the theme of meteorites:
Then they found about a hundred meteorites, including the largest - the 1.7-ton Jilin (Girin) meteorite.
These are the pebbles that rained down from the sky on China for 37 minutes:
The meteorite fell on Far East in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on February 12, 1947.
It was crushed in the atmosphere and fell out in the form of iron rain over an area of 10 sq. km.
After the fall, more than 30 craters with a diameter of 7 to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 meters were formed.
About 27 tons of meteorite material was collected.
Pieces of iron that fell from the sky during a meteor shower:
Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920
Meet Goba - the largest meteorite ever found! Strictly speaking, it fell about 80,000 years ago.
This iron giant weighs about 66 tons and has a volume of 9 cubic meters. fell
in prehistoric times, but was found in Namibia in 1920 near Grotfontein.
The Goba meteorite is mainly composed of iron and is considered the most
heaviest of all celestial bodies of this kind that have ever appeared on Earth.
It is preserved at the crash site in southwestern Africa, in Namibia, near the Goba West farm.
It is also the largest piece of iron of natural origin on Earth. Since 1920, the meteorite has shrunk slightly:
erosion, Scientific research and vandalism did their job: the meteorite "lost weight" to 60 tons.
The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite, 1908
June 30, 1908 at about 07:00 in the morning over the territory of the basin
Yenisei from the southeast to the northwest flew a large fireball.
The flight ended with an explosion at an altitude of 7-10 km above the uninhabited area of the taiga.
The blast wave circled the globe twice and
was recorded by observatories around the world. The power of the explosion is estimated at 40-50 megatons,
which corresponds to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb.
The flight speed of the space giant was tens of kilometers per second.
Weight - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons!
Area of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River:
As a result of the explosion, trees were knocked down over an area of more than 2,000 square meters. km,
window panes in houses were broken in several hundred
kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. Blast wave within a radius of about 40 km
Animals were destroyed, people suffered. Within a few days in the territory from the Atlantic to the central
In Siberia, an intense glow of the sky and luminous clouds were observed:
But what was it? If it was a meteorite, then at the site of its fall
a huge crater half a kilometer deep should have appeared.
But none of the expeditions managed to find it ... Tunguska meteorite
is, on the one hand, one of the most well-studied phenomena,
on the other hand, to one of the most mysterious phenomena the past century.
The celestial body exploded in the air, and there are no remnants of it,
except for the consequences of the explosion, it was not found on the ground.
Meteor shower of 1833
On the night of November 13, 1833, a meteor shower fell over the eastern United States.
It went on continuously for 10 hours!
During this time, about 240,000 meteorites of various sizes fell to the Earth's surface.
The source of the meteor shower of 1833 was the most powerful
known meteor showers. Now this stream is called the Leonids in honor of the constellation Leo,
against which it is visible every year in mid-November.
On a much smaller scale, of course. Leonid meteor shower, November 19, 2001:
Every day, about 20 meteor showers pass close to the Earth.
About 50 comets are known that could potentially cross the orbit of our planet. Earth Collision
with relatively small cosmic bodies several tens of meters in size occur once every 10 years.
Often our planet is attacked by various space objects. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface of the Earth. Those that evaporate we call shooting stars or meteors (remnants of comets). However, some larger lucky ones, meteorites, still manage to sometimes reach the surface of the Earth, on which they can lie for thousands of years unchanged.
Asteroids are space objects even larger in size. According to one theory, one such rock left the Earth without dinosaurs about 63 million years ago, and with another like it, 2012 DA14, we narrowly avoided a collision in 2013.
Below we will talk about the six largest meteorites ever known to earthlings.
The largest meteorites
Iron Nickel Willamette
American Museum of Natural History, 1911
This is the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. Its weight is 15.5 tons and its size is 7.8 square meters. The dents on the meteorite were not formed because it partially burned out while getting to Earth. The thing is that it has rusted for hundreds of millions of years, lying in the humid forests of Western Oregon.
The meteorite was found at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1906. Before you get to the museum, an interesting story happened to the meteorite.
Initially, the meteorite was discovered by the Indians, who moved it to the territory of the Willamette Valley, Oregon. This assumption arose due to the fact that the impact crater was not found. It is believed to be in Canada.
The Indians worshiped the stone, calling it a guest from the moon, and the rainwater collected in the recesses of the stone was used by them to treat diseases.
In 1902, the meteorite was discovered by miner Ellis Hughes. The man immediately realized that it was not just a stone in front of him, so for three months he slowly moved the find to his site.
However, he was exposed, and the pebble was recognized as the property of a steel company in Oregon, on whose territory the meteorite was originally located.
In 1905, the meteorite was bought by a private individual for $26,000 and a year later donated to a museum in New York, where it still lives.
After the stone ended up in the museum, the Oregon Indians demanded the return of the meteorite, as it had been the subject of their religious cult for many centuries and took part in the annual ritual ceremony.
However, it turned out to be impossible to remove the meteorite from the museum without destroying the walls, so an agreement was concluded with the Indians, under which a ceremony could be held on the territory of the museum once a year.
The largest meteorites
Mbozi meteorite
This meteorite was discovered in the 1930s in Tanzania. The meteorite is almost 1 meter high, 3 meters long, and its weight is almost twice that of Willamette and is 25 tons.
For many centuries, local tribes considered Mbozi a sacred stone and did not tell anyone about it because of various taboos. They called it "kimondo", which is translated from the Swahili language as "meteor".
Interestingly, there is no crater at the place where the meteorite was discovered. This suggests that after the collision with the Earth, the meteorite rolled over the surface for some time.
90 percent of the meteorite consists of iron, like most of all its known counterparts, this also explains its dark color. Traces of melting and heating to very high temperatures are very noticeable on the stone, which is a consequence of passing through the upper layers of the atmosphere.
People dug a ditch around the meteorite, since Mbozi was originally partially submerged in the ground. They left a layer of soil under it, which later became a natural pedestal.
The largest meteorites
Meteorite Cape York
This is the third largest meteorite that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago. The meteorite was named after the place where its most significant fragments were discovered in Greenland.
The largest fragment of the meteorite is called "Anigito" and weighs 31 tons. The history of his name is interesting. When the stone was delivered by ship to the American Museum of Natural History in 1897, the four-year-old daughter of explorer Robert Peary broke a bottle of wine on it and uttered a meaningless word in her own language: "a-ni-gi-to."
They decided to name the pebble, which before that the Eskimos, who were the first to find a meteorite, called "Tent". "Anigito" took root better.
The second largest fragment of the meteorite is called Agpalilik (the aborigines called it "Man"). It was discovered in 1963, weighs 20 tons and is now in the Geological Museum at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Various meteorite fragments were found between 1911 and 1984. In addition to "Man" and "Anigito", they also found "Woman" (3 tons), "Dog" (400 kg), etc.
It is worth noting that for a long time, the Inuit tribes used fragments and fragments of the Cape York meteorite to create their harpoons and tools.
Meteorites that fell to Earth
Meteorite Bakubirito
This is the largest meteorite found in Mexico. It weighs about 20 tons, is 4.5 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.75 meters high. It was discovered by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey near the city of Sinaloa de Leyva.
The pebble was found in 1863, and now it can be seen in scientific center city of Sinaloa.
El Chaco meteorite
This meteorite is the second largest meteorite ever to hit the Earth. It weighs almost twice as much as the previous one on this list - 37 tons!
He fell in Argentina and is part of a group of meteorites called Campo del Cielo. As a result of its fall, a crater was formed, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich is 60 square meters.
El Chaco was discovered in 1969 with a metal detector, because it was underground at a depth of 5 meters.
Meteorite hunter Robert Haag tried to steal it in 1990, but the local police responded in time.
Last year, in 2016, another fragment was discovered and brought to the surface, which, according to assumptions, is part of the same group of meteorites as El Chaco.
Goba meteorite
This meteorite is the largest ever found. It fell in southwest Africa, in Namibia, and has never been moved. It is twice as heavy as its closest rival El Paco: this monster weighs 60 tons.
The stone got its name from the Hoba West Farm, on whose territory it was found in 1920. It was found by pure chance by the owner of the farm when he was plowing one of his fields, because neither the crater nor other traces of the fall were preserved.
Goba is interesting because compared to other meteorites, its surface is smooth and flat. It is 84 percent iron and 16 percent nickel.
It is worth adding that the meteorite has never been weighed. It is believed that when it fell to Earth, its weight was about 90 tons. According to estimates at the time of discovery in 1920, the baby weighed about 66 tons, however, scientific research, vandalism and erosion still did their job, so today Goba has lost weight to 60 tons.
Goba is by far the largest piece of iron of natural origin. It covers an area of 6.5 square meters. It supposedly fell to Earth about 80,000 years ago and hasn't moved since then due to its sheer size.
Oddly enough, but there was never a need to dig it out. According to one theory, due to its relatively flat shape, the meteorite glided over the surface rather than deepening into the ground.
Every day, up to 6 tons of meteorites fall to Earth: some of them cause serious damage, others scatter in the atmosphere. The catalog of meteorites contains about 23 thousand objects. We will mark the most curious space aliens.
The oldest and largest
Officially, the oldest meteorite that reached the surface of the Earth is considered space object, discovered on Mount Huashitai near the Chinese city of Xi'an. According to scientists, he fell to Earth about 2 billion years ago. Interestingly, the inhabitants of these places from ancient times revered Mount Huashitai as sacred.
This meteorite can also be called the largest. Chinese scientists estimated the dimensions of the celestial giant - 160x50x60 meters, with a weight of almost 200 tons. To get to the core of the meteorite, scientists had to drill a hole 50 meters long.
Today, China's first meteorite park has been opened at the crash site of a cosmic body, where visitors can increase their knowledge of unusual celestial aliens.
The most "iron"
In 1920, on the territory of present-day Namibia, the farmer Jacob Germanus, plowing the land, stumbled upon a huge stone block - he did not know that he had discovered a meteorite. The heavenly guest was named after the nearby Hoba West Farm. The meteorite mainly consists of iron, due to which, despite its rather modest size - a diameter of 2.5 meters and a volume of 9 cubic meters. meters - its weight reaches 6o tons.
According to scientists, the meteorite fell about 80 thousand years ago. It is curious that for its dimensions it left too small a crater, but most likely, according to scientists, the object had a small angle of incidence, and before colliding with the Earth's surface, it greatly slowed down its speed. The possibility of such a fall is also confirmed by the shape of the celestial body - it is flat on both sides.
From the moment the meteorite turned into a landmark, according to experts, it has lost at least 6 tons - the result of the actions of vandals, who all strive to chip off a piece for themselves as a keepsake. To somehow prevent the meteorite from being stolen for souvenirs local authorities in 1955 it was declared a national monument.
The most mysterious
The catastrophe that happened on June 30, 1908 in the sky over Siberia in the region of Podkamennaya Tunguska is associated with the fall of a meteorite. The explosion, which occurred at an altitude of about 5-10 kilometers, was so powerful that it was recorded by observatories around the world. According to scientists, the power of the explosion was 40-50 kilotons - this corresponds to the power of a hydrogen bomb.
A blast wave in a radius of 40 kilometers knocked down a forest, and flows of combustible gases provoked a severe fire. Due to the clouds formed after the passage of the celestial body on the line from the Southern Yenisei to the French city of Bordeaux, the effect of “bright nights” could be observed for several days. This phenomenon became possible due to the intense reflection of the sun's rays by the clouds.
The site of the Tunguska meteorite crash was visited by several research expeditions, but no fragments unambiguously belonging to a celestial body were found, with the exception of microscopic silicate and magnetite balls, which are attributed to extraterrestrial origin. A number of other finds at the crash site are conical holes in the ground and quartz cobblestones with mysterious signs while confusing scientists.
The largest meteor shower
In March 1976, the inhabitants of the Chinese province of Jilin literally fell "stone rain" that lasted more than half an hour. However, despite the intensity of the meteorite bombardment, there were no reports of damage.
Scientists have found that the speed of the meteor shower was approximately 12 km / s, and the weight of its fragments reached 12.5 kg. Later, the largest of the objects was also discovered - a 1.7-ton meteorite, named Jirin.
As a rule, meteor showers are possible during the destruction due to severe overheating in the upper atmosphere of a larger meteorite. This is evidenced by the testimony of eyewitnesses who reported a strong cannonade of explosions before the fall of stones.
The most unusual
In 1980 on the territory of the Soviet military base near the town of Kaydun in Yemen, a seemingly unremarkable meteorite the size of a fist fell, if not for one circumstance: it was not like any of the meteorites found so far. According to an employee of the Institute of Geochemistry. Vernadsky Andrei Ivanov, this two-kilogram meteorite most likely flew to us from Phobos, a satellite of Mars.
Studies using an electron microscope have shown that the body of a space guest consists of substances that are completely different both in origin and in chemical properties, fragments of volcanic rocks and high content carbon.
American scientist Michael Zolensky suggests that carbonaceous matter is a consequence of the "asteroid past of Phobos", and volcanic fragments hit the meteorite from Mars.
The most "alive"
The meteorite that fell in 1969 near the Australian town of Murchison does not differ in special dimensions - 108 kilograms, but it is known for having more than 14 thousand stars. organic compounds, including about 70 amino acids. True, a real debate arose about the latter, since some scientists considered that some amino acids got into the celestial body from the earth's soil.
The debate continued for 27 years until American scientists conducted a decisive experiment, during which they proved that the ratio organic matter in a meteorite "is different from that characteristic of all terrestrial objects." The Murchison meteorite is primarily of interest to those who believe that life on Earth occurred due to the introduction of organic compounds from outer space.
The largest collection of meteorites
The ice shell of Antarctica is an ideal place to discover the remains of celestial bodies, since its white surface does not allow anything to escape the gaze of researchers. Scientists have calculated that about 700 thousand meteorites are scattered on the surface of the continent - here you can find real "deposits" of stellar matter. In the places with the highest concentration space objects, according to scientists, "meteorites are literally lying under their feet."
We were prophesied many times the End of the World according to the scenario that The ground will fall a meteorite, an asteroid and will blow everything to smithereens. But he did not fall, although small meteorites fell.
Can such a meteorite still fall to Earth, which will destroy all life? What asteroids have already fallen to Earth and what consequences did this entail? Today we'll talk about this.
By the way, the next End of the World is predicted for us in October 2017!!
Let's first understand what a meteorite, meteoroid, asteroid, comet is, with what speed they can hit the Earth, for what reason the trajectory of their fall is directed to the Earth's surface, what destructive force meteorites carry, given the object's speed and mass.
meteoroid
A meteoroid is a celestial body intermediate in size between cosmic dust and an asteroid.
A meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere with great speed (11-72 km/s) heats up due to friction and burns out, turning into a luminous meteor (which can be seen as a "shooting star") or a fireball. The visible trace of a meteoroid that entered the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, and a meteoroid that fell to the Earth's surface is called a meteorite.
Cosmic dust- small celestial bodies that burn up in the atmosphere, having an initially small size.
Asteroid
“An asteroid (a synonym common until 2006 - a minor planet) is a relatively small celestial body in the solar system moving in orbit around the sun. Asteroids are significantly inferior in mass and size to planets, have irregular shape and have no atmosphere, although they may have satellites.
Comet
“Comets are like asteroids, but they are not boulders, but frozen flying swamps. They mostly live on the edge of the solar system, forming the so-called Oort cloud, but some fly to the Sun. When they approach the Sun, they begin to melt and evaporate, forming a beautiful tail glowing in the sun's rays. Superstitious people are considered harbingers of misfortune.
fireball— a bright meteor.
Meteor — “(Ancient Greek μετέωρος, “heavenly”), “shooting star” is a phenomenon that occurs when small meteor bodies (for example, fragments of comets or asteroids) burn in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
And finally, the meteorite:A meteorite is a body of cosmic origin that has fallen onto the surface of a large celestial object.
Most of the found meteorites have a mass from several grams to several kilograms (the largest of the found meteorites is Goba, whose mass, according to estimates, was about 60 tons). It is believed that 5-6 tons of meteorites fall on Earth per day, or 2 thousand tons per year.
All relatively large celestial bodies that enter the Earth's atmosphere burn up before reaching the surface, and those that do reach the surface are called meteorites.
And now think about the numbers: “5-6 tons of meteorites fall on Earth per day, or 2 thousand tons per year”!!! Imagine, 5-6 tons, but we rarely hear reports that someone was killed by a meteorite, why?
Firstly, small meteorites fall, such that we don’t even notice, a lot falls on uninhabited lands, and secondly: deaths from meteorite impact are not excluded, type in the search engine, in addition, meteorites repeatedly fell near people, on dwellings (Tunguska fireball, Chelyabinsk meteorite, meteorite fall on people in India).
More than 4 billion space bodies fall to Earth every day. so they call everything that is more space dust and less than an asteroid, - so say the sources of information about the life of the Cosmos. Basically, these are small stones that burn out in the layers of the atmosphere before reaching the earth's surface, a few pass this line, they are called meteorites, whose total weight per day is several tons. Meteorites that still hit the Earth are called meteorites.
A meteorite falls to Earth at a speed of 11 to 72 km per second, in the process of great speed, the celestial body is heated and glows, which causes a “blowing” of a part of the meteorite, a decrease in its mass, sometimes dissolution, especially at a speed of about 25 km per second or more . When approaching the surface of the planet, the surviving celestial bodies slow down their trajectory, falling vertically, while as a rule they cool down, so there are no hot asteroids. If a meteorite splits along the “road”, a so-called meteor shower can occur, when many small particles fall to the ground.
At a low speed of the meteorite, for example, several hundred meters per second, the meteorite is able to retain its previous mass. Meteorites are stone (chondrites (carbonaceous chondrites, ordinary chondrites, enstatite chondrites)
achondrites), iron (siderites) and stony-iron (pallasite, mesosiderite).
“The most common are stone meteorites (92.8% of falls).
The vast majority of stony meteorites (92.3% stony, 85.7% total number falls) - chondrites. They are called chondrites because they contain chondrules - spherical or elliptical formations of predominantly silicate composition.
Pictured are chondrites
Basically, meteorites are about 1 mm, maybe a little more .. In general, less than a bullet ... Perhaps there are a lot of them under our feet, perhaps they fell right before our eyes once, but we did not notice this.
So, what happens if a large meteorite that does not crumble into stone rain and does not dissolve in the layers of the atmosphere falls on Earth?
How often does this happen and what are the consequences of this?
Fallen meteorites were found by finds or by falls.
For example, according to official statistics, the following number of meteorite falls was recorded:
in 1950-59 - 61, on average per year 6.1 meteorite fall,
in 1960-69 - 66, on average per year 6.6,
in 1970-79 - 61, on average per year 6.1,
in 1980-89 - 57, on average per year 5.7,
in 1990-99 - 60, on average per year 6.0,
in 2000-09 - 72, on average per year 7.2,
in 2010-16 - 48, on average per year 6.8.
As we can see even according to official data, the number of meteorite falls is increasing in last years, decades. But, of course, we do not mean 1mm-three celestial bodies ...
Meteorites weighing from several grams to several kilograms fell to Earth in uncountable numbers. But there were not so many meteorites weighing more than a ton:
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite weighing 23 tons fell to the ground on February 12, 1947 in Russia, in the Primorsky Territory (classification - Zhelezny, IIAB),
Jilin - a meteorite weighing 4 tons fell to the ground on March 8, 1976 in China, in the province of Jilin (classification - H5 No. 59, chondrite),
Allende - a meteorite weighing 2 tons fell to the ground on February 8, 1969 in Mexico, the state of Chihuahua (CV3 classification, chondrite),
Kunya-Urgench - a meteorite weighing 1.1 tons fell to the ground on June 20, 1998 in Turkmenistan, in a city in the North-East of Turkmenistan - Tashauz (classification - chondrite, H5 No. 83),
Norton County - a meteorite weighing 1.1 tons fell to the ground on February 18, 1948 in the USA, Kansas (Aubrit classification),
Chelyabinsk - a meteorite weighing 1 ton fell to the ground on February 15, 2013 in Russia, in the Chelyabinsk region (chondrite classification, LL5 No. 102†).
Of course, the Chelyabinsk meteorite is the closest and most understandable to us. What happened when the meteorite fell? Series shock waves during the destruction of a meteorite over Chelyabinsk region and Kazakhstan, the largest of the debris weighing about 654 kg was raised from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul in October 2016.
On February 15, 2013, at about 9:20 a.m., fragments of a small asteroid collided with the earth's surface, which collapsed as a result of deceleration in the Earth's atmosphere, the weight of the largest fragment was 654 kg, it fell into Lake Chebarkul. The superbolide collapsed in the vicinity of Chelyabinsk at an altitude of 15-25 km, many residents of the city noticed a bright glow from the burning of an asteroid in the atmosphere, someone even decided that this plane had crashed or a bomb had fallen, this was also the main version of the media in the first hours. The largest meteorite known after the Tunguska meteorite. The amount of released energy, according to the calculation of specialists, ranged from 100 to 44o kilotons in TNT equivalent.
According to official figures, 1,613 people were injured, mainly from broken glass from houses affected by the explosion, about 100 people were hospitalized, two were in intensive care, total amount damage to buildings of about 1 billion rubles.
The Chelyabinsk meteoroid, according to NASA's preliminary estimate, was 15 meters in size, weighing 7000 tons - these are its data before entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Important factors for assessing the potential danger of meteorites for the earth are the speed with which they approach the earth, their mass, and composition. On the one hand, the speed can destroy the asteroid to small fragments even before the earth's atmosphere, on the other hand, it can give a powerful blow if the meteorite still reaches the earth. If the asteroid flies with less force, the probability of preserving its mass is greater, but the force of its impact will not be so terrible. It is the combination of factors that is dangerous: the conservation of mass at the highest speed of the meteorite.
For example, a meteorite hitting the ground weighing more than a hundred tons at the speed of light can bring irreparable damage.
Information from the documentary.
If a round diamond ball with a diameter of 30 meters is launched towards the Earth at a speed of 3 thousand km per second, then the air will begin to participate in nuclear fusion and, under the heating of the plasma, this process can destroy the diamond sphere even before it reaches the Earth's surface: information from scientific films, on the projects of scientists. However, the chances that the diamond ball, albeit in a broken form, will reach the Earth are great, during the impact, a thousand times more energy will be released than from the most powerful nuclear weapons, and after the area in the area of \u200b\u200bthe fall is empty, the crater will be large, but the Earth has seen more. This is at 0.01 of speed of light.
And what happens if you accelerate the sphere to 0.99% of the speed of light? Super-atomic energy will begin to act, the diamond ball will become just a cluster of carbon atoms, the sphere will flatten into a pancake, each atom in the ball will carry 70 billion volts of energy, it passes through the air, air molecules pierce through the center of the ball, then get stuck inside, it expands and reaches the Earth with a greater content of matter than at the beginning of the path, when it crashes into the surface, it will pierce the Earth at random and in breadth, creating a cone-shaped road through the root rock. The energy of the collision will blow a hole in earth's crust and break through the explosion of a crater so large that through it it will be possible to see the molten mantle, this impact is comparable to the 50 impacts of the Chicxulub asteroid that killed the dinosaurs in the era BC. It is quite possible the end of all life on Earth, at least the extinction of all people.
And what will happen if we add more speed to our diamond sphere? Up to 0.9999999% of the speed of light? Now each carbon molecule carries 25 trillion volts of energy (!!!), which is comparable to the particles inside the Large Hadron Collider, all this will hit our planet with approximately the kinetic energy of the moon moving in orbit, this is enough to punch a huge hole in the mantle and shake earth's surface planets so that it simply melts, this with a probability of 99.99% will put an end to all life on Earth.
Add another speed to the diamond ball to 0.99999999999999999999951% of the speed of light, this is the highest speed of a mass-bearing object ever recorded by man. Particle "Oh, my God!".
“The Oh-My-God particle (“Oh my God!”) is a cosmic shower caused by ultra-high energy cosmic rays, detected on the evening of October 15, 1991 at the Dugway Test Site (English) in Utah using the Fly's Eye cosmic ray detector » (English) owned by the University of Utah. The energy of the particle that caused the shower was estimated at 3 × 1020 eV (3 × 108 TeV), about 20 million times greater than the energy of particles in the radiation of extragalactic objects, in other words, atomic nucleus had a kinetic energy equivalent to 48 joules.
This energy has a 142-gram baseball moving at a speed of 93.6 kilometers per hour.
The Oh-My-God particle had such a high kinetic energy that it traveled through space at about 99.99999999999999999999951% of the speed of light."
This proton from Space, which “flared up” the atmosphere over Utah in 1991 and moved almost at the speed of light, even the LHC (collider) could not reproduce the cascade of particles that were formed from its movement, such phenomena are detected several times a year and no one does not understand what it is. It appears to be coming from a galactic explosion, but what happened to cause these particles to come to Earth in such a hurry and why they didn't slow down remains a mystery.
And if the diamond ball moves at the speed of the “Oh my God!” particle, then nothing will help and no computer technology will simulate the development of events in advance, this plot is a godsend for dreamers and blockbuster creators.
But roughly the picture will be like this: a diamond ball rushes through the atmosphere without noticing it and disappears into the earth's crust, a cloud of expanding plasma with radiation diverges from the entry point, while the energy pulsates outward through the body of the planet, as a result, the planet becomes hot, begins to glow, the Earth will be knocked out into another orbit Naturally, all living things will die.
Taking into account the picture of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which we recently observed, the scenarios of the fall of meteorites (diamond balls) from the film presented in the article, the plots of science fiction films - we can assume that:
- the fall of a meteorite, despite all the assurances of scientists that it is realistic to predict the fall of a large celestial body to Earth in decades, given the achievements in the field of astronautics, cosmonautics, astronomy - in some cases it is impossible to predict !! And the proof of this is the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which no one predicted. And the proof of this is the particle “Oh, my God!” with their protons over Utah in 91…. As the saying goes, we don't know what hour and day the end will come. However, for several millennia, humanity has been living and living ...
- first of all, we should expect medium-sized meteorites, while the destruction will be similar to the fall of the Chelyabinsk one: windows will burst, buildings will be destroyed, perhaps part of the area will be burned out ...
Terrible consequences, as with the alleged death of dinosaurs, are hardly to be expected, but cannot be ruled out.
- it is unrealistic to defend against the forces of the Cosmos, unfortunately, meteorites make it clear to us that we are just small people on a small planet in the vast Universe, therefore it is impossible to predict the outcome, the time of contact of the asteroid with the earth is impossible, breaking through the atmosphere more and more actively every year, the Cosmos seems to be claiming to our territory. Get ready, don’t get ready, and if the forces of heaven send an asteroid to our Earth, you can’t hide in any corner .... So meteorites are also sources of deep philosophy, rethinking of life.
And here is another news! We just recently prophesied another end of the world!!! October 12, 2017, that is, we have very little time left. Presumably. A giant asteroid is heading towards Earth! This information looms in all the news, but we are so accustomed to such cries that we do not react ... what if ....
In the Earth, according to the versions of scientists, there are already holes and cracks, it is burning at the seams ... If an asteroid reaches it, and a huge one, as predicted, it simply cannot stand it. You can only save yourself by being in the bunker.
Wait and see.
There are opinions of psychologists that such intimidation is an attempt in any way to instill fear in humanity and control it in this way. The asteroid is indeed planning to pass the Earth soon, but it will go very far, one in a million chance that it will hit the Earth.
