During the day you can register, about 28 000 meteorites seen the value of which is equal to 3. Mass meteoroids, calling the phenomenon is only 4.6 grams.

In addition to the unit (sporadic) meteors several times a year you can watch the whole meteor showers (meteor showers). While usually one hour observer registers 5-15 meteorites, during the meteor rain - hundred, a thousand or even up to 10 000. This means that in the interplanetary space are moving meteor swarms of particles. Meteor showers for several nights appear approximately in the same region of the sky. If their tracks to continue ago, they will intersect at one point, called the radiant of a meteor shower.

Largest known meteorites is located on the site of the crash in the desert Adrar (West Africa), its weight is estimated at 100 000 tons. The second largest iron meteorite gob weight of 60 tons is located in South-West Africa, third, weighing 50 tons, is stored in the new York Museum of natural history.

If in the Earth's atmosphere comes meteor body weight exceeds 1 000 000 tons, it delves into the ground on 4-5 their diameters, all his enormous kinetic energy is converted into heat. Occurs explosion, which meteor body largely evaporated. On the site of the explosion formed a funnel is the crater.

One of the most spectacular is the crater in Arizona (USA). Its diameter is 1200 m and the depth of 175 meters; the shaft of the crater raised above the surrounding desert to a height of 37 meters. The age of this crater is about 5000 years.

The main sign of meteorites is the so-called molten crust. She has a thickness not exceeding 1 mm from all sides covers a meteorite in the form of a thin shell. Especially noticeable bark black stone meteorites.

The second sign of meteorites are characteristic holes on the surface. Usually meteorites have the form of fragments. But sometimes there are meteorites great cone-shaped form. They resemble the crown of the projectile. This conical shape is formed as a result "obtachivaya" actions of the air.

The largest one-piece meteorite was found in Africa in 1920 this Meteorite iron and weighs about 60 Tons Usually meteorites weigh several kilograms. Meteorites weight in tens, and even more in hundreds of kilograms falling very rarely. Most small meteorites weigh a fraction of a gram. For example, on a place of falling of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite was found the smallest instance in the form of grains weighing only 0.18 G, the diameter of this meteorite is only 4 mm

Most often fall stone meteorites: on average from 16 fallen meteorites is only one iron.