Hey, Does any body knows the difference between an asteroid & a meteorite?????

Question

Coz i heard this news today about that asteroid that is possibly goin to hit the earth on 2029.It was on msn. THe idea is freakin me out so wat do u think about it?????????

Answer 1

An asteroid is a large chunk of rock out in space.(aka meteor)
A Meteoroid is a piece of rock entering the earths atmosphere.
A Meteorite is a chunk of space rock that has impacted earth.

Answer 2

Asteroids and meteorites are basically the same thing - space debris. Just different sizes. If a meteoroid (better word for the object, meteor is just the streak you see) is greater than several metres across, often it will be called an asteroid. However, sometimes bodies 10 km across are still called meteoroids.

Some meteoroids and asteroids have a cometary origin - leftovers when a comet breaks up. Some are remnants from the formation of the Solar System.

Don;t worry about 2029. The asteroid will do a flyby, but its chances of hitting are thousands to one aganist.

Relax. Also, if there was a real chance that it would hit, we have 22 years to do something about it. Not a tough job with current technology.

Answer 3

Ok this is directly from a text book:
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed.
Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical object. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies that drift in the solar system in orbit around the Sun.

Pretty much a meteorite is a piece of matter from space that has hit earth and has not been destroyed. And an asteroid is matter, being a planet or piece of a planet, that orbits the sun.

Answer 4

I get so sick of answering this question, but at least I get the 2 points, and occasionally, 10 pts.

You have nothing to worry about. Go out and have a BBQ on that day and look towards the sky for something that you will never see again in your lifetime.

Read on...
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/13may_2004mn4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

As far as your question:
A METEOR is a small piece of comet tail or impact debris, usually about the size of a grain of sand or a small pea, that burns up in the atmosphere.

A METEORITE is a meteor that has made it all the way to the ground without completely burning up. If you find a meteorite on the ground and go to pick it up, it will be a lot heavier that it looks because meteorites are very dense.

An ASTEROID is a piece of rock (probably leftovers of a planet that never quite formed) that orbits the Sun roughly between Mars and Jupiter. Some theories suggest that the asteroid belt was a planet at one time, but Jupiter's intense gravitational pull broke the planet up into pieces.

Mack

Answer 5

Meteroids are rocky gadgets in area, maximum are the size of a grain of sand. Asteroids are quite enormous meteroids. A meteor is while a meteoroid enters the ambience. The friction heats it to impressive temperatures that make it glow like the tungsten ingredient in a delicate bulb yet plenty brighter. A meteor in many cases burns up or explodes interior the ambience from each and all the stress. A meteorite is while it hits the Earth. What become over Russia become a meteor because it exploded interior the top ecosystem. It become with regard to the size of an excellent truck and the explosion become with regard to the size of 5 Hiroshima bombs in spite of the shown fact that it become very some distance away. in spite of the shown fact that the marvel blast blew out abode windows and set off off automobile alarms over an excellent section and a million,2 hundred human beings have been injured in maximum cases by applying flying glass. Moscow spoke back by applying on the instant dispatching 20,000 first responders ( i'm specific many Katrina survivors are going to be mad at their government over that ). the only that ignored us become an asteroid, a small one approximately 40 5 meters in diameter.

Answer 6

Meteorites are generally small, normally break up in the earth's atmosphere, and generally are not that big of a deal to life on the surface.

Asteroids are floating hunks of rock out in space, that range in size, some up to a mile or more across.

If you're asking what do I think about an asteroid collision with the Earth, well, what is there to think about? We can't spend money to deflect or destroy it, because we're too busy hunting down Osama Bin Laden... ;)

If it was discovered by astronomers that an asteroid capable of causing an extinction level event, or even city wide destruction was on a probable course for Earth, then I would assume that the responsible governments of our world would come together to destroy it. Or at least move people out of the destruction zone, of course, an Armageddon size asteroid wouldn't care much where you were, since most surface life would be killed no matter where it struck.

In that case, I'll spend my retirement on a beach in Aruba, and be drinking cocktails until zero hour!

Also, if you're talking about Apophis, that asteroid would have an extremely low chance (like 1 in 20,000) to hit us, and would pass through a gravitic keyhole in 2029. The ensuing orbital path would then have it strike us 7 years later in 2036, but ONLY if it passes through this very small area, something like a kilometer, and in space, that's a tough target to hit.

Answer 7

Asteroid 99942 Apophis was once thought to have a small chance of hitting Earth in 2029. Later they said it would miss but return in 2036 and possibly hit then. The latest observations have ruled out any collision. So don't worry.

Such asteroids have passing pretty close to Earth for all of recorded human history, and longer, without anyone knowing about it. The only difference today is that we have telescopes and space craft and computers so that we know about it.

Answer 8

There are numerous differences;

Asrtoids- are too small and too numerous to be called planets.Most astroids revolve around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Meteors- is a chunk of rock and dust from space. Meteoroids come from comets or astroids.

Extra knowledge; When meteoroids enterEarth's atmosphere , friction makes it burn up and produce the streak of light you see in the sky- a meteor.
If the meteoroid is large, it may not burn so quickly. Meteoroids can pass through the atmosphere and hit Earth's surface, which would be called meteorites. The craters and on other objects in the solar system were caused by meteorites.

Answer 9

A meteor is anything that falls into the Earth's atmosphere and begins to burn up from friction. A meterorite is a meteor that has landed on Earth. An asteroid is a meteor that hasn't happened, basically a large rock in space. Compare comets, which are like asteroids but mostly made of ice, that evaporates and jets into the surrrounding space when it is warmed by the sun, causing a "tail".

Answer 10

An asteroid is floating in space. A meteorite actually hits the earth's surface.