Quynh+Trang

** The purpose of our project is to research the impact of a meteor on earth's atmosphere and which precautions we should take if such an event were to take place .** ||
 * [[image:meteor-strike.jpg width="323" height="338"]] || ** Basic Information: **
 * **65 Million years ago:**
 * A comet 10 kilometres across collided with Earth killing the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all life.
 * If a comet like that did hit earth:
 * It would hit earth with more energy than the world's entire nuclear arsenal
 * It would hit the atmosphere 100 times faster than a speeding bullet
 * And it would hit the ground with an explosive force of 100 million tonnes of TNT
 * The shock wave alone from the crash would travel at 30,000 kilometres per hour smashing everything down within 200 kilometres
 * An area of of thousands of square kilometres would be incinerated
 * Nitrogen and oxygen in the air react from nitric acid to spray the earth with a solution as acidic as a car battery
 * The original explosion blasts billions of tons of debris in the air. The dust is carried around the world blacking out our planet for centuries. || **Recent Events:**
 * Four times this century, and twice in just over two years a space rock has chosen a car as its target
 * On June 21st, 1994
 * 1.4 kg stone smashed through the windscreen of a car
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">On September 29, 1938 a 1.8 kg space rock fell on a Pontiac coupe in Illinois
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">On October 9, 1992, thousands of Americans saw the meteorite trail
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">From photographs the following was determined:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">altitude
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">final measurable velocity
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">orbit of asteroid
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">average distance from the sun
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Peekskil Meteorite)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Meteorites are constantly hitting the earth, although most are much smaller than one responsible for amaging cars in these specific events ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**This is a video clip taken of the Peekskill meteorite trail as it streams across the US. Many people were fortunate to see it that night allowing many pictures and clear footage of its' path to be taken.** || media type="file" key="Peekskill-Fireball-Meteor[www.savevid.com].mp4" width="425" height="323" align="center" ||
 * * A meteoroid is a particle of debris in the Solar System
 * The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is known as a shooting star
 * IF a meteor reaches the ground and survives impact, it is called a meteorite
 * Many meteors appearing seconds of minutes apart are called a meteor shower
 * Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, especially in the inner Solar system; they are smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids
 * The distinction between asteroids and comets is made on visual appearance: Comets show a perceptible coma while asteroids do not || * A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma, and sometimes also a trail
 * These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet
 * Comet nuclei are themselves loose colllections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles, ranging from a few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across
 * 65 million years ago a comet struck Earth
 * It threw billions of tonnes of dirt into the atmosphere and changed climate
 * Comets may have been the key to life on earth because of ice, dust...etc
 * Ice could have been made the water of which now are our oceans
 * Organic molecules trapped in the ice could have started life ||

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