“Meteorites hold a record of the chemicals that existed in the early Solar System and that may have been a crucial source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth.” Quoted from the Carnegie Institution for Science press release.
An asteroid measuring somewhere between 20 and 60 feet in diameter came within 37,000 miles of hitting the Earth – that’s about 1/6 of the distance between Earth and Moon.
In July, 2011 a meteor broke-up during its descent through Earth’s atmosphere, dropping debris on the Moroccan desert. Fragments of the meteorite were recovered and NASA has confirmed that they are fragments of Mars.
“When a meteorite careens toward the dusty surface of the Red Planet, it kicks up dust and can cause avalanching even before the rock from outer space hits the ground…” Quoted from the University of Arizona press release.
NASA has a gallery of low altitude images of the Vesta Asteroid. The collection also includes a terrain model of Vesta’s southern hemisphere. This part of Vesta has a large circular basin about 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter. It’s rim is elevated about 9 miles (15 kilometers) above the basin center.
An article on the SignOnSanDiego.com website explains what Earth might have been like during the extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian which wiped out most of Earth’s species.
On Tuesday, November 8th, Asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass within 0.85 lunar units of the Earth – that means it will pass between the moon and the earth. NASA’s comments… “Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years. However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to within 0.6 lunar distances.”
Princeton University researchers have produced a model of how seismic waves would spread across and within the Earth after the impact of a giant meteorite.
October is one of the busiest months for meteor showers and NASA’s All-Sky camera was very busy one night capturing meteors from five different showers.
Spitzer Space Telescope has detected a storm of comets around a star named Eta Corvi. It is thought to be an environment similar to the “late heavy bombardment” period of our own solar system.
“By analyzing carbonate minerals in a four-billion-year-old meteorite that originated near the surface of Mars, the scientists determined that the minerals formed at about 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit).”
“A new image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows a mountain three times as high as Mt. Everest, amidst the topography in the south polar region of the giant asteroid Vesta.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“Analysis of fragments of the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which landed in Sudan in 2008, has shown that the parent asteroid was probably formed through collisions of three different types of asteroids. ” Quoted from the Europlanet Research Infrastructure press release.
Field investigations have confirmed that the Luizi Structure in the Democratic Republic of Congo is an impact structure. For detailed evidence see the paper by Ferriere and others.
“At approximately five million years old, Bigach is a relatively young geologic feature. However, active tectonic processes in the region have caused movement of parts of the structure along faults, leading to a somewhat angular appearance.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
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