Why don't we get hit by meteorites more often?

We are hit constantly, however the atmosphere protects the surface so meteorites break apart and burn up. If you live in an area away from the city with minimal light pollution you can see tons of "shooting stars" in the night sky, which are these meteorites burning up in the atmosphere.

yes but how bout bigger ones??

There are tons of meteorites hitting the Earth constantly.

Maybe you meant to ask about "meteors"?

Large dangerous meteoristes are also redirected or broken up by star fleet who has always been around earth and all other inhabited planets. Also, note the direction of those shooting stars, if they shoot ACROSS space they usually are craft that leave orange or yellow tails behind them. Meteors impacting our atmostphere are FALLING stars and do not travel horizonatally.

Last Edited by Candace on 07/18/2009 11:48 AM

The Solar System is old. Most of the biggies in our vicinity have already been swallowed up.

Uh-oh. Candy is online. Bye' y'all.

That, it must be said, is total

Meteoroids are small bodies that travel through space. Meteoroids are smaller than asteroids; most are smaller than the size of a pebble. Meteoroids have many sources. Most meteoroids come from asteroids that are broken apart by impacts with other asteroids. Other meteoroids come from the Moon, from comets, and from the planet Mars.

A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere, usually making a fiery trail as it falls. It is sometimes called a shooting star or a falling star. The friction between the fast-moving meteor and the gas in the Earth's atmosphere causes intense heat; the meteor glows with heat and then burns. Most meteors burn up before hitting the Earth. Only large meteors can survive the trip through our atmosphere. A fireball is any meteor that is brighter than Venus (magnitude -4). A meteor shower is a phenomenon in which many meteors fall through the atmosphere in a relatively short time and in approximately parallel trajectories. A very intense meteor shower is called a meteor storm.

A meteorite is a meteor that has fallen to Earth. These rare objects have survived a fiery fall through the Earth's atmosphere and have lost a lot of mass during that process. Meteorites are made up of rock and/or metals.

our solar system travels at high velocity through our galaxy. sometimes as we go on this crazy carousel ride we enter into dangerous territories. The gravitational pulls of Other galactic bodies can sometimes launch huge meteors or comets that can come flying directly in our direction. we are mostly lucky as the planet jupiter and our sun with their huge mass has a strong gravitational pull and they take the brunt of the hits. but then sometimes if it goes just the right way we ourselves can be the target. The earth has sustained many catastropic hits in the past and will continue to do so, but it only happens every 33000 years or so (i'm guessing) give or take.

if we did get hit often by large meteorites - we wouldn't be around
.

anything smaller than one meter gets burned

atmosphere... and we are really fucking tiny

Large dangerous meteoristes are also broken up by star fleet who has always been around earth and all other inhabited planets. Also, note the direction of those shooting stars, if they shoot ACROSS space they usually are craft that leave orange or yellow tails behind them. Meteors impacting our atmostphere are FALLING stars and do not travel horizonatally.


yeah I remember that Star Trek episode, where captain Kirk got knocked out & lost his memory, lived with the indians on thier planet, got to bang a hot indian chic, they all thought he was a God. Spock somehow broke the Enterprise trying to stop a meteor, Kirk fired up the planets defence platform & stopped the meteor, but couldnt save the hot indian chic.