The Math Blaster Blog

Did you know that there is a ton of rocks in space? But because the universe is so gigantic, they rarely impact Earth or even get noticed by us. However, on this last Friday there were two space rocks that flew close to – or right into – Earth! The first was one that everyone was keeping track of: asteroid 2012 DA14, which passed within 17,000 miles of Earth (which is closer than the moon).

The surprising space rock was the meteor that crashed into the Ural Mountains in western Russia. Chunks of meteorites crashed into buildings and cars in that area, causing small craters about eight inches in diameter.

What is the difference between a meteor, a meteorite, and a meteoroid? A meteor is the streak of light that you see when an object from space travels through the atmosphere. A meteor can be anything from a spec of dust to a gigantic rock. A meteorite is a meteor that has landed on Earth and you can find in the ground. A meteoroid is when the object is still in space.

NASA estimates the meteor was about the size of a school bus and exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere with the same amount of energy as 20 atomic bombs. The explosion was caused by the meteor hitting the Earth’s atmosphere. It exploded when it hit Earth’s atmosphere because the atmosphere is much denser than space – that is, there are more molecules and atoms packed together in an area. When the meteor encounters the dense atmosphere, the change in density is like the change from the atmosphere to the ground.

This meteor was the largest meteor reported since 1908, when another meteor crashed into Sibera. That meteor exploded with the power of 1,000 atomic bombs, and knocked down 80 million trees over 830 square miles! It is a very good thing that Friday’s meteor was smaller than 1908’s meteor.

Filed under: Current Events, Science Facts Tagged: | current news, Math Blaster, Science facts, space