• Question: What causes a meteoriod to fall from space?

    Asked by to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      Hi verc5
      I think you’d need to ask an astrophysicist as I just really don’t know! Sorry, but its a great question – you see we don’t know everything!

    • Photo: Jane Charlesworth

      Jane Charlesworth answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      A meteorite is just the word astronomers use for a piece of rock that falls from space to the Earth. Any piece of rock floating around in space can get sucked into the Earth’s gravitational field (this happens because the meteorite is tiny compared with the size of the a planet) and then fall to Earth (usually they burn up first, though). Most meteorites come from asteroids colliding–they can travel through space for thousands of years before coming close enough to Earth to get sucked in.

Comments