The fall of celestial bodies

Each month the real surface of the Earth is hit by a meteorite fall. However, many of which are unknown to humans because the meteorite fell in the ocean, forests, swamps and other open areas. Meteorite that fell in parts of Indonesia could occur two to three years. Opportunities fell on the ground was small because most areas of the ocean.

The size of the meteorite that reached Earth's surface is very small, in the form of flakes and sand. Space object had entered the atmosphere at speeds of about 100 000 kilometers per hour. He will usually be eroded by the relatively dense air mass in Earth's atmosphere. As a result, the meteorite will begin to burn with a temperature hundreds of degrees Celsius to resemble a fireball at an altitude of 100 km from the surface of the Earth.



"Therefore, when I got here on Earth, the meteorite had shattered the form of flakes," says Thomas Djamaluddin, an expert in astronomy and astrophysics from Lapan.

Because of the very high heat, melt the outside of the meteorite would be to leave the blackened material in the Earth's surface.

Meteorites usually contain nickel and other metals. As a form of rock composed of carbon and silicates. "Material from the sky did not contain radioactive substances or radiated," said Thomas.

Meteor

Meteors, asteroids or star is the remnant that had been destroyed or the remnants of the interplanetary solar system formation. Currently residing in the Earth's solar system, the Sun ran into an object space, the meteor would be attracted by the gravity of the Earth up into the atmosphere.

Until now, there has been no monitoring system that is able to detect meteors the size of less than 10 yards, let alone a meteor that his movement is very sporadic and random.

Unlike the fall of garbage in space, meteor showers can be expected every month. Meteor shower of sand-sized grains from a comet constellation dust remaining.

In addition Lyrid meteor shower last month, residents of Earth will see the meteor shower early this May and among them Leonid meteors in November. This year there will be a total of 11 times the major meteor showers.

Space Dust

These were scattered around the Earth space rocks with various sizes of sand-sized to relatively larger. The number reached more than 25,000 tons.

This material does not include space junk caused by human activity itself. It was a scrap of garbage that is no longer active satellites. According to Lapan data, the amount of space junk is more than 15,000 units.

Especially for the garbage of this satellite, the Agency of the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has issued a catalog for each satellite used to being around Earth. Catalog also provides satellite owners and potential hazards into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the catalog only lists the garbage the size above 10 meters.

Fall of space junk is another threat for Indonesia. Possible fall-satellite fragments circulating in the vicinity of the equator, because Indonesia is categorized as a large area extending up one eighth of the equator. It was announced by Head of Center for Utilization of Space Science National Aeronautics and Space Agency of Sri kaloka.

Just like a meteor, although the form of pieces of space junk, it will be shot with a very high speed while falling to the surface of the Earth and could hit residential areas or other important objects.

To anticipate this, Lapan observing the object and take action on security before the incident, for example by closing the highway and liberate the region to be exposed to the object.

In the future, the opportunity space junk falling on Earth will be increasingly larger. Until January 27 years ago, the number of chips there is 7789 (size above 10 cm), satellite functioning and not functioning numbered 3338, as well as 1820 rocket body. In total, there were 12 947 units.