Meteorites for Dummies Trivia Quiz

Answer: A chunk of rock or metal that falls to earth

It is the "falling to earth" part that is important. Earth in this case means the surface of the planet, including water.

Answer: Burnt up spaceships

There are thousands of asteroids in the Asteroid Belt, which is between Mars and Jupiter. There are others throughout the solar system.

There are fewer meteorites from Mars and the Moon. Scientists compare these against samples brought back from the Moon by astronauts and data from Mars sent back by the Viking probe (and later missions).

Answer: Glass

Iron meteorites are mostly made of iron-nickel metal and it is thought that they are part of the middles of asteroids.

Stone meteorites are mostly silicate minerals. Silicate minerals make up 90% of the surface of our planet. These are probably the outer rocks that break off when two asteroids collide.

Stone/iron are a mixture of the other two types and are considered the most attractive as they twinkle.

Answer: Yes

The meteorite may be warm to the touch due to having entered the earth's atmosphere at speed. The youngest age of all recorded meteorites is in excess of 60 million years old and no germs can survive for that long.

Answer: It injured a child

In 1911 a dog was killed by the Nakhla meteorite in Egypt.

In 1920 a 66-ton meteorite was found by a farmer in Grootfontein, Namibia. It set a record for size.

The child hit by the 1992 meteorite was only slightly injured and is the only person ever reported to have been injured by a meteorite.

Answer: The land owner

Unless something else is written into the local laws, meteorites belong to the owner of the land where it landed.

The Gambia, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Argentina and India all have laws about meteorite ownership (according to discovery.com).

Answer: False

Meteorites vary in size from a pebble upwards. Earth's gravity will slow the speed of a small meteorite and it will not cause a crater. It would probably make a hole in your roof though.

Answer: Colour

A marcasite nodule will have a yellow tinge despite having the alternate name of white iron pyrite. If your find is metallic, it could be a meteorite.

Answer: Antarctica

Antarctica is the best place to find meteorites as they are easier to spot on the snow and 90% of confirmed meteorites have been discovered there.

Over time all rocks, including meteorites, can deteriorate. Meteorites in Antarctica are better preserved by the cold and dry Antarctic weather (according to an interview with Sara Russell, Head of Meteoritics and Cosmic Mineralogy, on the Natural History Museum website).

Answer: Cosmochemist

When analysing meteorites, cosmochemists are trying to learn as much as is possible about our solar system and beyond. They are akin to archaeologists of the cosmos and are looking for signs of life as well as discovering where the meteorites came from.