Thunderstones and Shooting Stars : The Meaning of Meteorites

About this book

A streak of light crosses the night sky as a bit of extraterrestrial material falls to Earth. Meteorites which range from particles of dust to massive chunks of metal and rock bombard the Earth constantly adding hundreds of tons of new material to our planet each day. What are these objects? How do we recover and study them? Where do they come from and what do they tell us about the birth and infancy of the solar system? Why do many scientists now believe that meteorites have played a dramatic albeit occasional role in the evolution of life on Earth? In Thunderstones and Shooting Stars Robert T. Dodd gives us an up-to-date report on these questions. He summarizes the evidence that leads scientists to believe that most meteorites come from asteroids although a few come from the moon and a few more from a planet probably Mars. He explains how chondrites--the most numerous and primitive of meteorites--contribute to our evolving picture of the early solar system and how some of them may tell us of events that took place beyond the sun and before its birth. Finally he examines the controversial hypothesis that impacts by asteroids or comets have interrupted the evolution of life on Earth accounting for such geological puzzles as the rapid demise of the dinosaurs.