The giant asteroid Vesta is believed to be the parent body for many achondrites of the Howardite, Eucrite, and Diogenite families of meteorites. Achondrite meteorites come from larger asteroids where minerals melted by pressure within the asteroid or where surface collisions resulted in the melting of asteroid material. Carbonaceous meteorites are among the rarest types of space rocks with the most well known being the Allende meteorite.Īchondrites are meteorites without chondrules. This class of meteorites is especially important to research scientists. Some Carbonaceous Chondrites contain organic compounds and primitive protein molecules. Our meteorite beads are handmade from ordinary chondrite.Ĭarbonaceous Chondrite Meteorites have chondrules but also have the element carbon in their composition. All chondrites share the fact that they have small spherical structures called chondrules as can be seen in most of the meteorite slices. Chondrite meteorites form the largest family of meteorites and come in many varieties. A couple of excellent examples are Canyon Diablo and Sihote-Alin meteorites.Ĭhondrite Meteorites are often called Ordinary Chondrites to distinguish them from other stone meteorites. Iron meteorites are made almost entirely of solid nickel-iron metal and display beautiful internal structures when polished and etched.
Although the vast majority of meteorites are very small, their size can range from about a fraction of a gram (the size of a pebble) to 100 kilograms (220 lbs) or more (the size of a huge, life-destroying boulder).Iron Meteorites come from the broken metal cores of destroyed asteroids. If any part of a meteoroid survives the fall through the atmosphere and lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite. “Meteor” refers to the flash of light caused by the debris, not the debris itself. A meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere. Another name commonly used for a meteor is a shooting star. And when they do enter Earth’s atmosphere, they gain a different name: Most meteoroids that enter the Earth’s atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the planet’s surface. A meteoroid is a piece of interplanetary matter that is smaller than a kilometer and frequently only millimeters in size. Space debris smaller than an asteroid are called meteoroids. Short-period comets (those which take less than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Kuiper Belt. Comets are thought to originate from two different sources: Long-period comets (those which take more than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Oort Cloud. Sometimes their orbits get perturbed or altered and some asteroids end up coming closer to the Sun, and therefore closer to Earth.Ĭomets are much like asteroids, but might have a more ice, methane, ammonia, and other compounds that develop a fuzzy, cloud-like shell called a coma – as well as a tail - when it gets closer to the Sun. Infographics artist Tim Lillis has put together a primer of sorts, in the form of an infographic, describing the different between a comet, asteroid, meteoroid, meteor and meteorite.Īsteroids are generally larger chunks of rock that come from the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. With all the various space rocks flying by and into Earth last Friday, perhaps you’ve been wondering about the correct terminology, since a rock from space has different names depending on what it is made of and where it is.