Metors - What Really Are They? What Danger Do They Pose To Us?

Out in space, there are tons of materials moving freely at very high speed. Hundreds of tons of these material from space enters into the earths outermost space regions. Most of these ranges from the size of a grain of sand to something the size of a fingernail, but every now and again there is something much larger that comes flying our way. Dangerous? How does the earth cope?

In case you’re wondering why we do not have a continuous meteor shower, then you should remember that our Earth is given a blanket layer, the ozone layer. Most meteors burn up far above the ozone layer. However, if a meteor survives that long then the ozone layer will help burn it up more, not because of any special property of the ozone, simply its property of having mass, and so providing friction that leads to heat production that burns up these space material as they speeds through the ozone layer with very high velocities.

Sometimes after the ozone burning of large encroaching space material, smaller mass of them still enters the earth.

Last February, widespread panic struck when an asteroid estimated to be up to 20 meters (66 feet) and 6,000 kilograms (13,000 pounds) came tearing across the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast from the explosion caused millions of dollars in damages and injured over 1,500 people. To make matters worse, nobody saw it coming.

Overnight on April 18-19, 2014, a meteor-like object was observed streaking across the sky over Murmansk, Russia. It is possible that the object is part of the annual Lyrid meteor shower, which is nearing its peak. There was no report, however, of any emergency services being called, but it did put on quite a show.

NASA’s Near Earth Object Program keeps their eyes on the skies for anything headed toward Earth, but right now there aren’t any funded programs for addressing this particular problem. Keep this fact in mind next time someone says we should cut space funding. But be sure that the earth would never be crushed to extinction by such space bodies because it has a guardian, Its creator.