Other meteoroids are formed by the disintegration of comets and asteroids. These particles were thrown into random orbits around the Sun and they account for a majority of the meteors we see. Most meteoroids traveling through space are particles of interplanetary collisions that occurred eons ago. While they start out straight, the speedy high altitude winds (around 80 kilometers or 60 miles high) can distort them into strange shapes. The longer lasting trails are called trains. This trail can last from a few seconds to many minutes. These remnants are called meteorites.Īs the rare, larger meteoroids enter the atmosphere, they often leave a smoke trail behind. Very rarely a meteoroid with sufficient size will enter the Earth's atmosphere and remnants of the original mass will survive the journey through the atmosphere. It is the tremendous friction that causes the meteor to produce light and to ultimately disintegrate before reaching the Earth's surface. When these meteoroids encounter the Earth, they may enter the atmosphere a speeds up to 72 kilometers per second (45 miles per second). Meteoroids (meteors traveling in space) can orbit the Sun at a velocity of up to 42 kilometers per second (26 miles per second). What makes these tiny specks appear as bright streaks is the tremendous velocity at which they strike the Earth's atmosphere. These fleeting streaks of light are nothing more than minute specks of interplanetary debris colliding with the upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere. That may seem far away but the asteroid in fact passed well within the moon’s orbit of the earth which is about 238,855 miles away.E-mail: are meteors and why do they glow?Īnyone who has spent time outdoors at night has seen an occasional "shooting star" in the dark sky. The boulder flew within 186,000 miles of the planet after being spotted by astronomers a few days before. Meanwhile, a large and potentially disastrous asteroid the size of a double-decker bus sped past the Earth over the weekend. He also says the earth is being hit by many meteors, mostly small, but we never see them as most of the earth is covered by ocean and they hit the sea out of our sight or notice.Ī scientific paper on the analysis was publised in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science- abstract here He says the fact that this impact was unknown until now, is evidence that there are probably many other still undiscovered meteor impacts, which he says have helped develop the earth’s structure, geological and geographical features. The force was such that the blast would have wiped out any living creature with 200 km. Red dot indicates Bow City, Alberta and the site of impact crater. Professor Schmitt and his team were called in to further analyze the data and determined that all the evidence pointed to a huge and ancient impact crater. The layers under the surface in the area should have been fairly flat and even, but geologist Paul Glombeck noticed that there some strange anomalies. The formation was originally discovered during what would have been a routine subsurface topography survey. Schmitt says the crater would have been about 1.5 km deep with a high central peak and outer debris field almost that high, all of which has since eroded to leave no visible trace on the surface Geologist Doug Schmitt says some time between 50 million and 70 million years ago, a huge chunk of space debris at least the size of an apartment block crashed into marshy, subtropical plains near what is now the hamlet of Bow City. Professor Schmitt suggests that depending on the actual composition of the meteor and travelling at the incredible speed of 30 kilometres/second, it would have been probably up to half a kilometer in diameter if comprised of iron, and a kilometer in diameter if made of rock. Over millions of years the vast wall of material around the impact, the deep hole and high central peak have all eroded to the point of being virtually unnoticeable on the landscape now.
3D imaging showing the depression around the exterior ring and the central peak.