Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Author:      jessica a byrne  and  stacy wheelock
Would meteors ever hit the Earth?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      hawley
YES! Meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere all the time:  most are so small
that they burn-up in the atmosphere; if they are large enough to survive and
hit the ground, they become "meteorites."
A little history (in chronological order):
1) 65 million years ago:  one theory scientists use to explain the extinc-
tion of the dinosaurs is a large meteor, asteroid, or comet hitting the
Earth.  Evidence for the crater such an impact would have left has recently
been found in the Yucatan Peninsula area.
2) a few tens of thousands of years ago:  Meteor Crater was formed in  
Arizona.  It is about one kilometer wide.  I recently saw a similar but
older crater in the Altiplano of Bolivia.
3) early this century:  a huge fireball hit a remote region of Siberia.

Fun fact:  the Earth gains about a million kilograms of mass per day from
meteors!