.Did you observe more meteors earlier or later in the evening? (Your graph shoul
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.Did you observe more meteors earlier or later in the evening? (Your graph should help you answer this question.) If you observed during a meteor shower, which days and times were expected to have the greatest number of meteors? Do your observations agree with this expectation? Not all meteorites have large amounts of iridium. There are three main categories of meteorites, described at Planets.org (http://www.planets.org/meteorites.htm) Name and describe the three main categories of meteorites below:Explanation / Answer
We can observe meteorites mostlt in night time. Meteors are caused by pieces of debris floating through the solar system, entering the Earth's atmosphere at very high speed and exciting the atoms in the air. The piece of material itself is usually destroyed by the immense heat caused by friction with the air. Although the vast majority of such objects are destroyed long before they can reach the surface of the Earth, some of the larger pieces do survive the journey, and fall to the ground. These pieces of rock from beyond the reaches of our planet are known as meteorites.
Due to the earthmotion, the best time to see the meteorites is the midnight. After midnight, the night time sky faces the direction of the Earth's motion, and in effect scoops up more meteors. At certain times of the year, many more meteors than usual can be seen at night. The reason for this is linked to the origins of the vast majority of meteors: comets. As a comet orbits near the sun, it loses material, the majority of which is ejected in the tail. The dust and rock particles ejected from the comet are spread behind it in a trail which follows the orbit. At certain times of the year, the Earth crosses these dirt-laden paths, and the particles of material which they contain are swept up by our planet's atmosphere to appear in the sky as a shower of meteors. The dates of these showers are accurately known, and astronomers can prepare for them in advance. Often, the comet responsible for particular showers is known: for instance, both the Eta Aquarid shower (which is at its height around May 4th) and the Orionid shower (October 20th) are both caused by the trail of debris left by Halley's comet.
The three main types of meteorites preserve a record of the different parts of planetesimal interiors: irons (representing metal cores), stony-irons (which contain silicates and metals and represent planetesimal core- mantle boundaries) and stony meteorites (which represent the crust of asteroids). The stony meteorites are divided into two groups: achondrites (which originate from planetesimals that have undergone internal melting) and chondrites (which have not).
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