Every day meteors burn up in the atmosphere with highly predictable results, reflecting radio waves that could be used to calibrate antennas.
meteors & meteorites
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Ursula B. Marvin (1921–2018)
This bold mineralogist and feminist bucked norms that deemed geology unsuited for women. She contributed to meteoritics, science history, and petrology, including the analysis of Apollo Moon rocks.
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Are We Prepared for an Asteroid Headed Straight to Earth?
A century after an asteroid crashed into Tunguska, Siberia, experts discuss the current lineup of missions to study asteroids and mitigate future disasters should another object from space hit Earth.
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New Simulation Supports Chicxulub Impact Scenario
Mountains ringing the center of Earth’s most famous impact crater consist of porous rocks. Computer models of the impact can now predict those rocks’ microstructure.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Airborne Fireball
A surprise sighting of a meteor in the sky above southeast Michigan.
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Students Get Help from Weather Radar to Find Space Rock Remains
Teens helped by scientists and educators seek meteorites that plunged into Lake Michigan early this year. Weather radar guided the search for the projectiles.
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Ancient Maya May Have Foreseen Meteor Showers
Modern astronomical techniques have uncovered clues to a possible facet of Mayan astronomy from nearly 2 millennia ago not found in surviving records.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tracking Meteor Trails to Study the Mesosphere
Twelve years of radar data reveal new phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Meteorites Mix Moon’s Surface at Both Small and Large Scales
A three-dimensional model of material transport suggests that impact cratering can mix lunar soils across distances of more than 100 kilometers.
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Urban Micrometeorites No Longer a Myth
After sifting through urban debris for 6 years, one scientist unearthed cosmic dust—confirming a long-held myth about urban micrometeorites.