3 questions...What are metors composed of? What are meteorites composed of?.. read more inside?

Question

What are metors composed of? What are meteorites composed of? And wouldnt a shooting star be composed of the same things a asteroid is? Thank you

Answer 1

This is a semantics question. A meteor is an chunk of something that has entered our atmosphere. A meteorite is anything that survives to reach the surface of our planet in a solid state (as opposed to evaporating away completely on the way down). A shooting star is another word for a meteor. Most meteors (by number count) are comet fragments, though occasionally a chunk of an asteroid enters the atmosphere.

The leftover cometary debris is generally going to be silicates (sand) with maybe a little bit of ices (hydrogen+carbon+oxygen) left over, but that stuff tends to evaporate this close to the sun.

Some asteroids are mostly silicates, some are rich in carbon compounds and some are largely nickel-iron, so meteors can be of all different types.

Answer 2

You are a little mixed up. Meteors, meteorites, and shooting staras are all the same thing, just in different stages of their lives. CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION I AM 99% POSITIVE ABOUT......Meteors are just in space, twirling around like a cosmic ballerina. Meteoroids are when the are screaming thourgh the atmosphere so fast that it lights the air on fire, this is the same as a shooting star. And a meteorite is when it hits the ground and leaves a big hole called a crater. Now to answer your question. They should be composed of mostly iron, nickel, and silicon. Same for the meteorites, except for perhaps a few trace elements that snuck in while it hit the ground. And no, asteriods are just giant rocks that have probably been broken off of some planet that are trapped in the rotation between the sun and Jupiter, though some are farther out. Your welcome.

Answer 3

Meteors are made up of iorn, silicon, oxygen and nickel. Not all those things are needed and they could have traces of other properties. Most meteors are just dust and come from comets. A few meteors found on Earth are thought to have come from Mars and our moon.

Astroids have a lot more ingredents and basically made up of the same stuff found on Mars, Venus, Earth and Mars.