What do meteorites tell us about the universe?
The study of meteorites has helped us understand the beginnings of our solar system, how planets and asteroids formed and how impacts of large meteorites have altered Earth’s history and life on our planet.
What is the importance of meteorites?
Why Do We Care About Meteorites? Meteorites that fall to Earth represent some of the original, diverse materials that formed planets billions of years ago. By studying meteorites we can learn about early conditions and processes in the solar system’s history.
What have we learned about Earth’s interior from meteorites?
Meteorites come from space. The composition of all meteorites in the solar system tells us what the Earth is made of, so we can guess that elements that are common in meteorites but not on Earth’s surface are more common inward (e.g. iron), but we can tell more by the seismic waves traveling through the Earth.
How do meteorites affect Earth?
Explanation: Meteorites enter Earth’s atmosphere every day. At this size, meteorites are large enough to start causing some serious trouble around the area they are in, including small earthquakes and and a short nuclear winter within a hundred miles of the impact.
What is the composition of a meteorite relevant to finding out the composition of Earth’s core?
The density and mineral composition are like that of the oceanic crust. Stony-iron meteorites have peridotite and a density similar to the mantle. Iron meteorites are the most dense and contain mostly iron, like the core. Iron meteorites are the most dense and contain mostly iron, like the core.
What do meteorites tell us about Earth’s age?
These ages are very consistent because the meteorites had to form before the accretion of our planet, and the Earth had to cool down before the first minerals could crystallise. Dating meteorites thus allows us to give a lower age to the Solar System (4,56 billion years old).