Known by a variety of names, depending upon their relationship to our
planet, meteors are much like asteroids in some respects. They are naturally-occurring
solid orbital space objects of great consequence to the Earth. Meteors, meteorites, and
meteoroids were defined and differentiated, with their interrelationships explained. The
amount of meteoroid material deposited daily on the Earth was quantified, as was the
number of meteoroid strikes annually. The number of known meteors was estimated,
and the number of meteor craters documented. Meteoroid strikes on buildings were
examined and dangers posed by meteors to space travelers discussed. The 2013 case of
a meteoroid exploding above Chelabyinsk, Russia, was documented. Recent reanalysis
of meteoroid risk analysis data revealed that the danger of a meteoroid strike has been
underestimated by a factor of four or five times.
Keywords: Achondrite, chondrite, amino acids, craters, fluvial, fusion crust,
interstellar clouds, limestone, meteor, meteorite, meteoroid, micrometeorite,
National Meteorite Collection, planetesimals, risk analysis, sandstone, space
travelers, stony meteorites, stony-iron meteorites, stony meteorites.
