Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Meteoroid, Impactite, Volcanic Glass
12 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Ancient greeks/romans called meteorites betyls: thought the rocks were chunks off some god"s house. Kaaba stone: large meteorite that muslims pay homage to in mecca: might be just obsidian (dark volcanic glass) or impactite (impact glass) Some european philosophers/scientists thought meteorites were heavenly bodies that somehow fell to earth. Most thought the universe was cleaned out of all solid material, so they thought they were terrestrial: maybe from volcanoes, or rocks from whirlwinds, thunderstorms flown back to the ground. One of the earliest witnessed meteorites: 1492. Chladni, physicist, published a book on eyewitness accounts of meteorites (ridiculed at the time: father of meteoritics. Finally in 1795 many people witnessed a meteorite falling from the sky. Meteoroid: natural rocky object in space measuring from a few mm to 100 m in diameter. Meteor: visual streak of light associated with a passage of a small meteoroid through.
