Often times, flew into the earth's atmosphere meteor particle has a relatively large size. She already weighs not share of grams and kilograms and tons. This is not a particle, the meteor body. When meteor body enters the atmosphere from the Earth seen rushing across the sky fire ball, called a car. Behind him there is the fire tail, scattered sparks and then remains weakly glowing foggy trace.

The car is flying for a few seconds, and the mark left them, you can see for tens of minutes or even more hours. He constantly changes its shape, curves in all directions, and then torn to pieces. The reason of this phenomenon - hurricane wind always blowing in the upper atmosphere. The wind carries and rips track car. During the flight, car the area illuminated by a bright flashing light.

Sometimes, especially when flying bright and large car, a few minutes after his disappearance comes crashing with peals. In remote times flying cars caused superstitious fear in the people. Cars with their fiery tails flapping traces superstitious people took over the fiery serpents or dragons.

The car is called a rare phenomenon - flying across the sky fireball. This phenomenon is called intrusion into the dense layers of the atmosphere of large solid particles called meteoric bodies. Moving in the atmosphere, particle heated up due to braking, and around a vast glowing shell consisting of hot gases. Fireballs are often visible angular diameter and are visible even during the day. Superstitious people took such balls of fire for flying fire-breathing dragons mouth. From the strong resistance of the air meteor body often breaks up and crashing falls to Earth in the form of fragments. The remains of meteoroids that fell to Earth, are called meteorites.

Meteor body with small sizes, sometimes completely evaporates in the Earth's atmosphere. In most cases, its weight behind the flight time is greatly reduced, and to the Earth fly only remnants, usually watching cool when space velocity already repaid by air resistance. Sometimes falls a meteor rain. When flying meteors melted and covered with a black crust. One such "black stone" (kabba) in Mecca built into the wall of the temple and is the object of worship.

Meteorites - stone or iron body falling to the Ground from the interplanetary space are remnants of meteoroids, not destroyed completely at movement in the atmosphere.

Falling meteorites on the Earth are accompanied by light, sound and mechanical phenomena. The sky flashes bright ball of fire, called the car, followed by the tail and flying sparks. On the way of movement of the car in the sky remains the mark in a smoky strip, which of the line under the influence of air currents takes a zigzag shape. At night, the car lights up the area for hundreds of kilometers around. After the car disappears after a few seconds, similar to hear explosions impacts caused by shock waves. These waves sometimes cause significant ground shaking and buildings.

Meteorites can be omitted in cases where speed is invading the earth's atmosphere meteoroids does not exceed 22 km/s and if the body has sufficient mechanical strength. Faced with the resistance of the air, meteor body inhibited, the kinetic energy transforms into heat and light. In the surface layer of the meteorite and formed around him envelope of air heated to thousands of degrees. Substance meteoroids after boiling evaporates, partially sprayed on the smallest droplets. Falling to the Ground almost sheer, fragments of meteoroids cool down and when you reach the ground are only warm. They are covered with hardened molten crust. In the fallen meteorites form of deepening, the size and shape of which depend on the mass of meteorites and their rate of fall.

The largest meteorite was found in the South-West Africa in 1920 this Meteorite, called the gob (names are given through the town closest to the crash site), iron, weight of approximately 60 tons of Such large meteorites fall seldom. As a rule, the masses of meteorites are hundreds of grams or more pounds.

The largest meteorites refers iron Sikhote-Alin, fallen in the USSR in 1947, He is still in the atmosphere has broken up into thousands of pieces and fell to the Ground "iron rain". When hitting the ground part of the meteorite smashed rocks, formed in them craters and a funnel. It was discovered 200 craters and craters with a diameter of 20 cm to 26 m is the Mass of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite is estimated at 70 tons, collected more than 23k.

Meteorites consist of the same chemical elements, which are also on the Earth. This is mainly the following eight elements: iron, Nickel, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, aluminum, calcium and oxygen. The other elements are found in meteorites in very small amounts. Connected together, these elements form in meteorites various minerals, most of which exists on Earth. But there are meteorites and with unknown on Earth minerals.

Iron meteorites almost entirely of iron in connection with Nickel and insignificant quantity of cobalt. In stony meteorites are the silicate minerals, representing a silicon compound with oxygen, and the admixture of other elements (magnesium, aluminum, calcium and others). Occurs in stone meteorites and Nickel iron in the form of seeds scattered throughout the mass of the meteorite. Zhelezorudnye meteorites are almost equal amounts of rocky substances and of Nickel iron.

If you look at the broken stone meteorite, you will notice rounded particles-Hendry. They have the form of balls with diameter 2-5 mm In different places of the Earth were discovered tektites - glass pieces of small size, with weight in grams. It is now established that the tektites is frozen spray earthly substances emitted (sometimes at great distances) in the formation of meteorite craters.

The earth meets only with those meteor, orbit which crosses earth's orbit. When closed the second stream of meteors is observed annually about the date when the Earth passes the point of intersection. Depending on the thickness of the thread, that is from its age, the time of observation meteor stream lasts from several hours to several weeks.

At the meeting of Land with a stream of meteor particles are observed meteors with almost parallel trajectories in the atmosphere (meteor shower). For the observer, due to the prospects of such trajectories look as though coming from the same point in the sky, called the radiant. Meteor showers are called constellation (the Latin name), which are their radiants. The most interesting meteor showers: the Quadrantids (observed annually on 3 January), Lyrid 20-24 April), Aquarids (1-9 of may), Per-saidy (5-18 August), Draconid (October 10), orionids (20-24 October), Leonida (15-17 November), the Geminids (December 10-16). Most of the major meteor showers do not have high spatial density of the particles in Roja, and head toward the Earth, and therefore have a high relative velocity. As a result, even many small particles can generate meteors accessible to observation. In swarms some weak thread catching up with Earth, the density of particles more than in swarms major meteor showers. Most meteors called sporadic, i.e. random, but in fact they belong weak undetected flows. Several times in a century the Earth meets the particularly dense parts meteor swarms, and then experience short-lived "meteor showers"lasting 1-2 hours