Meteorite or Meteor-wrong?

I thought I had found some teeny meteorite fragments (see HERE), so I retraced my path along the same stretch of road.

Sure enough, my magnetic walking stick found some more magnetic grains. Some were smaller than before, but one was bigger. 

My most recent space rock candidates with a toothbrush for scale.

Maybe, I thought, the big one was big enough to grind a little to reveal the interior.

I'll call this big one "Biggie."

I used a nail file to scrape off some of the outer layer.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute recommends six tests to determine if a rock might be a meteorite. Here are the results on Biggie.

1. Does the sample have a black or brown surface? Yes
2. Is the sample solid, without pores or hollow vesicles? Yes
3. Is the sample heavy for its size? Not sure - too small to tell
4. If a corner of the sample is ground slightly, is the interior metallic silver? Yes - see below!
5. Is the sample unlike other rocks in the area? Yes
6. Is the sample magnetic? Yes

You can just begin to see a bright silver surface after light scraping.

Another view of the silver surface.

I passed 5 out of 6 tests. Maybe we have a winner? Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

Orionid Meteor Shower

Credit: NASA

We see meteors (also called shooting stars) in the sky whenever Earth travels through an area of space littered with debris from a past comet.

Orionid meteors appear every year in mid-October when Earth plows through the dusty trail left over from Halley's comet.

QUESTION: Shouldn't they be called "Halley meteors" instead?

ANSWER: Good idea, but no. Meteor showers are named after their "radiant." This is the part of the sky from which the meteors appear to radiate or spread out from.

The Orionid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Orion.

QUESTION: Shouldn't they be called "Orion meteors" instead of "Orionid meteors"?

ANSWER: Probably, but scientists like to use fancy Latin words.

Comet Halley takes about 76 years to orbit the sun. Each time it crosses Earth's orbit, it leaves more dust and rocks behind for us to run into year after year.

Fun fact: I saw Halley's comet the last time it came around in 1986. I only had a small telescope, so it did not look very impressive, sad to say.

But don't worry. Comet Halley will swing through the inner solar system again in 2061, a measly 40 years from now.  Maybe you will see it for yourself.

Back to the meteors!  NASA has these viewing tips...

"The Orionids are viewable in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the hours after midnight. Find an area well away from city or street lights. Come prepared with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair.

Lie flat on your back with your feet facing southeast if you are in the Northern Hemisphere or northeast if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible. In less than 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors.

Be patient -- the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse."

More info: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/orionids/in-depth/

 

ISS and Meteors

More info:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146171/watching-meteors-from-space

https://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/home/index.html

Photo taken from ISS of meteors burning up in Earth's atmosphere.  Source: NASA.

I was reading about meteor showers, and it made me wonder what happens onboard the International Space Station (ISS) during a meteor shower. Are the astronauts in danger?

Luckily, NASA has an organization called the Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) that handles the technical work on meteoroids in space.

Bill Cooke is the lead at the MEO. He says, “Meteors fly by the ISS all the time, but the astronauts don’t see them. The meteor is just a little piece of rock, but it is so dark and moves so fast that you don’t see it whiz by. Astronauts see the meteors when they look down and see them burning up near Earth’s atmosphere, appearing as streaks of light.”

The objective of the MEO is to figure out the risk of meteoroids impacting ISS and other spacecraft in Earth’s orbit.

While it is not clear if meteoroids have ever destroyed a spacecraft, there have been several in-flight anomalies attributed to meteoroid impacts including loss of the Olympus satellite.

Spacecraft designers work to protect critical components on spacecraft or avoid critical operations such as extravehicular activities during meteor showers.

Astronaut Chris Hatfield, a past commander of ISS, once wrote that seeing a meteor from space was a “reminder of living in a shooting gallery.”

The good news is that the chances of the ISS getting hit by a small meteor are low. Plus, the ISS is built tough, and it can withstand many kinds of meteoroid impacts.