Meteorites….

Physics

…and where to find them.

Eugene https://fizzics.netlify.app
04-25-2021

This analysis was inspired by a set of talks by Mike Brown of Caltech on small bodies in the Solar System (these are available as part of his course on The Science of the Solar System on Coursera). He speaks with passion about these fascinating objects and how they tell an intriguing story about the formation of our Solar System. Most of the science you’ll meet within this blog comes either from this course or else an excellent book, Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System by John Lewis.

The data come from NASA (where else) and contains information on over 35,000 meteorites up to end 2015. In terms of munging, the data is:

Geographical Spread

First, let’s look at where meteorites have been found. The map below shows our meteors. The circle sizes correspond to meteor mass (though you have to zoom in a bit to appreciate the different sizes), the colour indicates the year of discovery. You can click on circles to get these details, as well as the meteor name. To avoid map navigation being tediously slow, only the heaviest meteorites are initially shown, but by clicking the top right legend you can include more.