science

New analysis makes it possible to 'know our enemy'
David Chandler, MIT News Office
August 13, 2008

For the last few years, astronomers have faced a puzzle: The vast majority of asteroids that come near the Earth are of a type that matches only a tiny fraction of the meteorites that most frequently hit our planet.

Since meteorites are mostly pieces of asteroids, this discrepancy was hard to explain, but a team from MIT and other institutions has now found what it believes is the answer to the puzzle. The smaller rocks that most often fall to Earth, it seems, come straight in from the main asteroid belt out between Mars and Jupiter, rather than from the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population.

The puzzle gradually emerged from a long-term study of the properties of asteroids carried out by MIT professor of planetary science Richard Binzel and his students, along with postdoctoral researcher P. Vernazza, who is now with the European Space Agency, and A.T. Tokunaga, director of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility.

Below you'll find a list of reasons why everyone should own a meteorite.
(If you have something to add let me know)

1. It’s A Meteorite! Duh… – A 100% genuine rock from space. How many people can say they own one?

2. Meteorites Are Cool. – It’s just plain cool to own a meteorite. How many other things do you own that are as cool as a rock from space?

3. Meteorites Are Aliens! – They aren’t from here, they’re from 100s of MILLIONS of miles away and have been floating around out in space for many MILLIONS of years just waiting to land on our planet, and end up in your hands.

4. Meteorites Are Great Conversation Pieces. – Put it on your coffee table or on your desk at work and you’ll be amazed at the attention it will draw. People will constantly ask you about it and it give you an excuse to look really smart when you explain how it got here.

5. Chicks Dig Meteorites! – Guys like them too ladies, so don’t get mad for us saying this. The rest is self explanatory.