Meteors: Crash Course Astronomy #23

Today Phil helps keep you from ticking off an astronomer in your life by making sure you know the difference between a meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid. When the Earth plows through the stream emitted by a comet we get a meteor shower. Meteors burn up about 100 km above the Earth, but some survive to hit the ground. Most of these meteorites are rocky, some are metallic, and a few are a mix of the two. Very big meteorites can be a very big problem, but there are plans in the works to prevent us from going the way of the dinosaurs.

Meteorite Links:

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Chapters:
Introduction: Meteors 00:00
Shooting Stars, Meteoroids, Meteors, or Meteorites? 1:15
Kinetic Energy 1:53
Compression & Ablation 2:57
Sporadic Meteors 3:45
Meteor Showers 4:23
Bolides 6:24
Classifying Meteorites 7:12
Very Big Meteorite = Very Big Problem 8:36
Review 10:20
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PHOTOS/VIDEOS

[Alverant]

Meteors are nature's way of saying "How's that space program coming along?"
Author unknown.

[bhavikdaya]

I wish Crash Course would release an illustrated book for each completed course.

[FriedrichHerschel]

There's an even better way to piss off astronomers:
"hey, can you do a horoscope for me?"

[dragonfighter]

With the DART mission, we have now tested our ability to redirect meteors and asteroids

[HexerPsy]

Love how Phil teaches you how to piss off astronomers XD

"What's your sign?"

Genius! XD

[jaedogg]

This is gonna get lost here but i love how this channel is dedicated to education and sharing information. Really awesome

[agomes]

I don't know if you are going to read this Phil, but anyways I would like to thank you very much for this series. You managed to make astronomy more interesting to the masses, and you did it by not making it too hard to understand. I am a civil engineer and I love astronomy, physics and math. So I felt very happy to see this, and I hope we have more episodes of Crash Course Astronomy. (also recomended to some friends interested in astronomy to watch this ASAP!)

A big fan of yours,
André Gomes

[mhultramarine]

Looked up into the sky and got blinded by street lamp, instructions not clear enough.

[asfsdfafasfasdfasdfasdfasdf]

Whoever is responsible for the mst3k reference deserves 3000 high fives. Nicely done, whoever you are, nicely done.

[biohazard]

Ok, so now whenever I'm going on a car trip, I'm gonna say, "let's haul mass!"

[PK]

Every meteor website looks like it was designed in the 90's

[evilpandakillabzonattkoccu]

i found a small iron meteorite last the size of a prescription bottle's lid....and when i found it, i was like a little kid on Christmas!! it looks very different to the hematite we have locally. i sat here with it in my hand watching this vid, like a child. the thought of holding something so amazing is near spiritual for me.

[TheMrMeff]

Scientist -
"let's crash a space probe into it"
American -
"Nuke it"

[roqueadeleon]

This is silly but I didn’t realize shooting stars were actually particles entering our atmosphere...😱 so cool 👍💫

[mordirit]

- So, you collect rocks?
- Jesus Marie, they are meteorites!

[solstice]

I wish you talked about the Tunguska event. No, not the one resulting in the spread of an alien black oil.

[hlynna]

A few non-astronomy reasons I love Phil: 1) he references MST3K. 2) He calls it the doobly-doo. 3) He quotes Larry Niven. :D

[ryanhollist]

I'm totally geeking out over your use of an MST3K reference.

[docopoper]

The dinosaurs went extinct because they didn't have Bruce Willis in their space program.

[ExhaustedElox]

I've been rewatching the MST3K catalog this week since I'm between jobs for the first time in over a decade.  That line before the opening hit me right in the feels.  Thanks, Phil.