The newly identified
meteoroid streams, observed by LADEE, occurred on January 9, April 2, April 5 and April 9, 2014.
The origin of sporadic
meteoroids is still uncertain.
These shooting stars, as magical as they may appear to be magical, are caused when the Earth passes through a stream, or trail, of dust and rocks --
meteoroids -- left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle as it orbits the sun.
Spectroscopy is an important aspect of meteor studies as it enables the chemical composition of incoming
meteoroids to be determined.
The particles, called
meteoroids, hit our planet's atmosphere at about 60 kilometers per second (37 miles per second)-each igniting in a white-hot streak of superheated air.
But not as close as the tiny
meteoroid 2004 FU162, which came within 4,000 miles in 2004.
The
meteoroid, also known as a bolide, was "only about two metres (6.5 feet) across and will break up in the atmosphere," David Morrison, a US astronomer who runs an alert network, the Near Earth Object (NEO) News, said in email late Monday.
The short-lived trail of light the burning
meteoroid produces is called a meteor.
A
meteoroid is a space rock in space or in the upper atmosphere of our planet.
Meteor--The light phenomenon which results from the entry into the Earth's atmosphere of a solid particle from space (a
meteoroid), popularly referred to as shooting stars or falling stars.
'Officials are investigating whether at some point during Columbia's voyage space debris or a
meteoroid may have struck the shuttle, causing fatal damage.'
The harsh environmental conditions were intended to model to a degree the conditions extraterrestrial bacteria might experience inside a
meteoroid blasted into space by an impact event on a planet such as Mars.