What Happens When a Meteorite Hits Earth?

MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.

Learning Target

Describe evidence that impacts from space have changed Earth's surface at varying times.

Success Criteria

Students can tell the difference between meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids.
Students can describe how impacts have affected organisms on Earth

Questions to Ponder...

What are some things that can happen when a meteor hits the Earth?
How can living organisms be impacted by an impact?
What is the difference between a meteor, meteoroid, and a meteorite?

Chicxulub Crater

World's third largest impact crater, and where the fate of the dinosaurs was sealed.

Read the article and then answer the questions.

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How the Chicxulub Crater Was Discovered

Close to Home...

On January 16, 2019 people up and down the East Coast of the United States witnessed a fireball streaking through the sky. What they were seeing was a meteor that was burning up in the atmosphere, traveling at approximately 50,000 mph.

In Russia Too!

Local residents witnessed extremely bright burning objects in the sky in Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, and Orenburg Oblasts, the Republic of Bashkortostan, and in neighbouring regions in Kazakhstan, when the asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere over Russia. Amateur videos showed a fireball streaking across the sky and a loud boom several minutes afterwards. Some eyewitnesses also felt intense heat from the fireball.

The Search for Micrometeorites!

Introduction

It is estimated that anywhere from 37,000 to 78,000 tons of meteorites hit Earth’s surface each year. Most of this figure is made up of micrometeorites, which are dust-sized specks about 50 µm (micrometer - one millionth of a meter) to 2 mm in diameter. Approximately one micrometeorite lands on every square meter of Earth per year. It is most likely that loads of micrometeorites are right outside your door!

Materials

strong magnet
2 plastic sandwich bags
scale
hand lens
microscope

Procedures

Preparation: Take your magnet and place a plastic baggy over it. Try to make it fairly tight so that the surface is as smooth as possible.
Use a scale to find the mass of one of your empty baggies. Write the mass of your baggy on the board for everyone to see. Calculate the average mass of a bag after every group has posted their mass.
Outside: Search for micrometeorites by dragging it along the ground. The tiny particles you are hunting will not be able to travel toward the magnet and will need to be contacted directly. If soil is wet, it will be harder for the magnetic particles to be pulled away from the soil.
Once the surface of the magnet is covered with particles, pull out a second baggy to empty them into. Separate the magnet from the sandwich bag that had been protecting it, which will remove the magnetic force on the particles, and allow them to fall to the bottom of the second bag for collection.
Back inside: Find the mass of the bag with your samples. Subtract the average mass of the baggies (from the previous step.) Record this in your notebook.
A closer look: Try to distribute the particles in the baggy evenly in a small area (about the size of a quarter.) Examine the sample with a hand lens. Draw a diagram of what you see in your journal.
An even closer look: place your sample on the microscope and turn on the light. Using the smallest lens, focus in on the sample and make observations. You may need to move the baggy around. Draw a diagram of what you see in your journal.
Increase the magnification and make more observations, recording what you see each time.
Categorize: Attempt to determine which particles may be man-made, or at least terrestrial (from Earth) and which may be micrometeorites. The micrometeorites will most likely be spherical.
- Click this link to see examples of the different micrometeorites you may find.

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If micrometeorites are constantly falling on the Earth why don't we see them all the time?

Take it Home: You may also be surprised at what can be found just from cleaning out your gutters! Put all of the material into a bin, and use dish soap and hot water to separate the magnetic particles from anything they might have been stuck to. Use a sieve to begin separating the leaves and sticks, until a magnet can be used (with the same sandwich bag technique as before) to pull any magnetic particles out from the dirt. Collect, catalog, analyze, and store the samples, just as described above.

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