A meteorite is called a meteoroid, which are the small particles that generally orbit the sun and that when they come into contact with the atmosphere of a planet, for example the earth, friction with the air causes them to heat up and then this causes that begin to irrigate light, forming a meteor or fireball. Although the appearance and findings of these on earth is very common, the Moon and Mars have also testified to their existence.
Traditionally, the procedure used to name and differentiate all these luminous flashes that fall on the earth is to call them with the name of the geographical region in which they were found or with the name of the nearest city.
There are three categories of meteorites, the stony ones, made up of silicate minerals, the metallic ones, composed mostly of iron and nickel and the stony ones with iron, which are those that contain in equal measure large amounts of rocky and metallic material..
While a good number of meteorites disintegrate upon entering the Earth's atmosphere without producing devastating results for the earth and the population, approximately five hundred enter each year, at least five or six of these are discovered, recovered and studied by the scientists and they are only owed, in the worst case, a small hole. Meanwhile, the responsibility for deep craters and the devastation of buildings, livestock or hectares will be due to metallic-type meteorites, which as a consequence of the resistance of the material that compose them, can not only transit the earth's atmosphere intact, but also cause huge holes in the ground.
Those who have observed this disintegration in the atmosphere of which we speak maintain that the trail that it leaves in its path is as bright or brighter than that of the sun, it occurs at moments in which it decomposes and even adopts different shades such as red. , yellow and blue.
Explosions, detonations, whistles, hisses and roars are some of the most characteristic sounds that these leave when they impact on planet earth.
Regarding the age of these, experts have confirmed that 86% of meteorites are chondrites, that is, they receive this name from the small round particles that make them up and these, in turn, date back to approximately four thousand fifths. millions of years ago. Even more and although it is a theory, many blame a meteorite as the cause of the mass extinction that occurred in the Tertiary Cretaceous period in which dinosaurs abounded.
