How many asteroids enter the earths atmosphere?

Answer 1

Several thousands. Most of them are the size of a grain of rice or smaller. A few each day may be the size of a baseball or occasionally the size of a Basketball.

Once a week or so, the Earth is hit by a rock the size of a car, and once every few months, we get hit by something the size of a house. A couple of months ago, a meteor the size of a house exploded over central Indonesia; it scared a lot of folks, but apparently did no damage.

The VAST majority of these burn up completely in the atmosphere, surviving as nothing but dust. A few do make it to the Earth, often in small (fist-sized) chunks. Very few do any damage. Only a few people are known to have been hit by a meteorite; there was a boy in Germany last year who was struck in the hand by a meteorite the size of a pea.

Every few hundred years, bigger things hit the Earth, and some do a lot of damage. In 1908, a meteor or small comet exploded high in the atmosphere near a place called Tunguska, Siberia, causing an explosion the size of a nuclear bomb. 5000 years ago, a meteor struck in the Indian ocean causing a tsunami, which may be the source of the "Great Flood" legends in Gilgamesh and Noah's Ark. 14000 years ago, something hit northern Canada causing the "Younger Dryas" mini-ice age.

It's called a "meteoroid" when it is out in space. When it enters the Earth's atmosphere and is heated to incandescence, the bright streak of light is called a "meteor".

If the object survives the fiery passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it is called a "meteorite".

Answer 2

In our asteroid belt alone, there are between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 km (0.6 mi) across, and millions of ones smaller than that. If every planetary system has roughly the same number, since there are approximately 1 billion trillion stars in the observable universe, there would be roughly 2 septillion asteroids in all.

Answer 3

The awnswer is amazing! about 10 small meteors hit earth! but they mostly hit oceans and don't do damage. but sometimes you can see them hit or even feel the impact!

dude you cant spell you must be a retard

Answer 4

Meteors do not strike the earth. A meteor refers to a piece of space rock which enters the Earth's atmosphere. If this rock hits the surface it becomes a meteorite. Meteorites strike the earth between 5 and 10 times a year. These are usually fairly small as they burn up while travelling through the atmosphere. This typically makes their presence un-newsworthy.

Answer 5

As of this writing, there are no asteroids known or suspected to be on a collision course with the Earth. So there is a very low chance that anything big enough to be a serious threat is likely to threaten the Earth within the next 20 years.

Smaller objects, which are far more difficult to detect that far out, can happen at any time. In the past 2 years, at least three small (less than 10 meters in diameter) asteroids are known to have struck the Earth, exploding high in the atmosphere without causing any damage.

Answer 6

Thousands or tens of thousands per DAY. Most of them are the size of a grain of rice or smaller. We're not yet sure of the frequency at which larger objects strike the Earth, but it is probably dozens or hundreds per year.

Answer 7

An asteroid is a space rock orbiting the Sun. Asteroids range in size from a few dozen meters in size (if they were any smaller, we would call them "meteoroids") to a few hundred miles in diameter.

An asteroid isn't generally spherical, but is irregular in shape. If the object is large enough for its own gravity to form it into a sphere, then it qualifies as a "minor planet". That sets a maximum size limit for an asteroid of about 300 miles.

We don't yet have a good idea as to the average composition, but the few we have studied have been primarily rocky, with some metallic content. It's likely that we will eventually find that some few asteroids are largely metal, which will make them incredibly valuable.

Answer 8

You need to more precisely define the word "large" in this context. As large as a car? Several dozen. As large as a house? A few.

As large as an office building? Once every thousand years or so. Such impacts have the potential to cause serious damage where they hit.

Answer 9

Lots. Possibly millions, depending on what constitutes an "asteroid". It International Astronomical Union (IAU) only just got around to defining a "planet", which is when Pluto flunked out of the "planet club". The IAU has never set a standard definition of "asteroid"; is there a minimum size requirement, or can any fist-sized rock qualify?

Answer 10

Approximately 3,000 meteors a day with the requisite mass strike Earth". This is a difficult number to get. How much mass? How fast does it need to be moving? But let's assume that this number is correct; it translates to 125 meteors per hour.