1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogal bomb here. Meteor showers are spectacular, but 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: one of the most amazing things about these displays is 4 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:17,400 Speaker 1: that the majority of the space debris that causes visible 5 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: meteors is tiny, between the size of a grain of 6 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: sand and the size of a small pebble. Discussing meteor 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: activity can be tricky because the terminology is a little confusing. 8 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: The term meteor actually refers to the streak of light 9 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: caused by a piece of space debreed burning up in 10 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. The pieces of debris are called meteoroids, and 11 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: the remnants of the debris that reach Earth's surface or 12 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,519 Speaker 1: the surface of other planets are called meteorites. Meteoroids come 13 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,480 Speaker 1: in a pretty wide range of sizes. They include any 14 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: space to breed bigger than a molecule and smaller than 15 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: a hundred meters in diameter that's about three ft. A 16 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: space debreed bigger than this is considered an asteroid. But 17 00:00:57,640 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: most of the debris that Earth comes in contact with 18 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: is dust shed by comets traveling through the Solar System. 19 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: This dust tends to be made up of very small particles, 20 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: so how can we see a meteor caused by such 21 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,759 Speaker 1: a tiny bit of matter? What these meteoroids black and mass? 22 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,760 Speaker 1: They make up foreign speed, and this is what causes 23 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: the flash of light in the sky. Meteoroids enter the 24 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: atmosphere extremely high speeds a seven to forty five miles 25 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: per second, that's about eleven to seventy two kilometers per second. 26 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:30,280 Speaker 1: They can travel at this rate very easily in the 27 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: near vacuum of space because there's not a lot to 28 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 1: stop them. Art's atmosphere, on the other hand, is full 29 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: of matter, which creates a great deal of friction on 30 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: a traveling object. This friction generates high heat up to 31 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: three thousand degrees fahrenheit or one thousand, six hundred degrees celsius, 32 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: and can raise the meteoroids surface to its boiling point 33 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:55,040 Speaker 1: so that the meteoroid is vaporized layer by layer. The 34 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: friction breaks the molecules of both the meteoroid material and 35 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: the atmosphere into lowing ionized particles, which then recombine, releasing 36 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: light energy to form a bright tail. A meteor tail 37 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: caused by a grain sized meteoroid will only be a 38 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: few feet wide or about a meter, but because of 39 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: the high speed of the debris maybe many miles long. 40 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: So how big does a meteoroid have to be to 41 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,600 Speaker 1: make it to the surface of the Earth. Perhaps surprisingly, 42 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: most of the meteoroids that reach the ground are especially small, 43 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 1: from microscopic to dust particle sized pieces. They don't get 44 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:34,880 Speaker 1: vaporized because they're light enough that they slow down pretty easily. 45 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:37,519 Speaker 1: I'm moving in a mirror one inch or two and 46 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: a half centimeters per second through the atmosphere. They don't 47 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: experience the intense friction that larger meteoroids do. In this sense, 48 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: most all meteoroids that enter the atmosphere make it to 49 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: the ground in the form of microscopic dust, as four 50 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: meteoroids that are big enough to form visible meteors. Estimates 51 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: for the minimum size vary. This is because there are 52 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: factors other than size involved. Most notably, a meteoroid's entry 53 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: speed affects its chances of reaching the surface because it 54 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 1: determines the amount of friction the meteoroid experiences. And typically, 55 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 1: though a meteoroid would have to be about the size 56 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:15,919 Speaker 1: of a marble for a portion of it to reach 57 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: the Earth's surface, smaller particles burn up in the atmosphere. 58 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: The meteorites a person is likely to find on the 59 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: ground probably come from significantly larger meteoroids, pieces of debris 60 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: at least the size of basketball, typically because larger meteoroids 61 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 1: usually break up into smaller chunks as they travel through 62 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. Estimates of how much space debris false to 63 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: Earth very widely. Researchers have looked at everything from polar 64 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: ice cores to the composition of the atmosphere to try 65 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: to ssess it out. Studies from the past few years 66 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: have indicated that as much as sixty tons of space 67 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: dust and tiny rocks might make impact every day, which 68 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: means that chances are decent that you can find some 69 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: in your own backyard. You can try putting out a 70 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: pan on a clear or day or night, or looking 71 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: for tiny rocks near the outlet of rain gutter pipes. 72 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: A strong magnet will pick up potential micro meteorites. Of course, 73 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: some normal earth stuff will latch onto a magnet too. 74 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: You can tell micro meteorites apart because they'll be spherical, 75 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: and if you look at them under a microscope, they'll 76 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: have a glassy crusting formed during their fiery fall. Today's 77 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:28,559 Speaker 1: episode was written by somebody on the house Stuff Works 78 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: team in the Way Back and produced by Tyler Clang. 79 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other topics, visit 80 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Rain Stuff is production of 81 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit 82 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,040 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 83 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.