Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite

Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite

Poll

Have you ever seen a shooting star?

• Yes

• No

• Maybe?

What are shooting stars?

The scientific name for a shooting star is a meteor. They are not stars at all. They are dust or small pieces of rock that burn up when they hit the atmosphere.

Multiple Choice

A shooting star is actually a...

• Comet
• Meteoroid
• Meteorite
• Meteor

Multiple Choice

What are meteors made of?

• Rock and/or Metal

• Ice

• Air

• Gas

Multiple Choice

For a typical meteor that you'll see, what is the size of the meteoroid?

• smaller than a grain of sand
• about the size of a marble
• about the size of a softball
• about the size of a basketball

Multiple Choice

Piece of a meteoroid that strikes the earth's surface

• comet
• asteroid
• meteor
• meteorite

Multiple Choice

An extremely bright meteor, which can be about the size of a grapefruit, is called ___

• a bolide or fireball
• a bovine or hairball
• a bovine or fireball
• a bolide or hairball

Multiple Choice

Before it becomes a "shooting star", the actual bit of solid stuff coming from space is called ___

• a meteoroid
• a meteor
• a meteorite
• an asteroid

Types of Meteorites

• Stony

• Stony Iron

• Iron

Multiple Choice

The majority of meteorites we find are mostly rock, and are classified as ___

• stony
• stony iron
• composite
• rocky iron

Multiple Choice

Iron meteorites most likely come from the center of ___

• a small comet
• a small asteroid
• a large comet
• a large asteroid

Multiple Choice

Where did Adam Savage's meteorite most likely come from?

• Mars

• Core of a Large Asteroid

• Another Galaxy

Sporadic vs. Showers

• Sporadic Meteors - Happen all of the time. You see single brief flashes of light.

• Meteor Showers - Many meteors that hit the Earth on a regular basis as the Earth orbits through a debris field from a comet.

• Meteor Shower Names - come from the constellation they appear in. For example: Leonid (Leo), Perseid (Perseus)

Radiant

The point in the sky a meteor shower appears to come from. This is an optical illusion created by perspective (how close things look near vs. far away).

Multiple Choice

Random meteors, which generally come from the collision of asteroids, are called ___

• dependable meteors
• sporadic meteors
• meteor showers
• methodical meteors

Multiple Choice

Meteor showers, many dozens or even hundreds of meteors per hour, come from ___

• asteroids
• comets
• asteroid collisions
• planet collisions

Multiple Choice

A meteor shower is named after ___

• famous astronomers
• the time of year of the shower
• the closest star to the radiant
• the constellation the radiant's in

Multiple Choice

During a meteor shower, the point on the sky where the meteors come from is called ___

• the radiant
• the vertex
• the origin
• the locus