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\"Meteor,

Meteor Briefing

  • The nucleus of a comet is like a ball of rock and dirty snow.
  • Most comets orbit outside Neptune (Kuiper belt) or far beyond Pluto (Oort cloud).
  • Most asteroids have the density of styrofoam.
  • Scientists have collected over 10,000 meteorites for study.
  • Meteor showers producing up to 100 per hour have seasons and are named after the background constellations: April and June = Lyrids, August = Perseids, October = Orionids, November = Taurids, Leonids
  • A meteor collision capable of regional devastation occurs once between 1,000 and 100,000 years.
  • A meteor collision capable of global climatic catastrophe occurs once per 100,000 years or so.
    Credit: NASA

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