the universe is full of millions of tons of debris of all shapes and sizes
out in space these are meteoroids the moment they hit our atmosphere they become meteors and
if it actually makes it through the atmosphere and hits dirt we call it a meteorite literal
tons of this stuff hits the ground every single day but often it's so small we never notice on
the other hand every so often a big one makes it through and some of them have been pretty amazing
10. chelyabinsk the viral sensation in 2013 a media lit up the sky over chelyabinsk in russia
and the people were ready and waiting with cell phones head to somewhere else on youtube right
now and you'll see hundreds and hundreds of videos of the meteor blazing across the sky it was the
largest object to hit our atmosphere since the advent of the viral video and people took full
advantage of making it internet famous the meteor itself injured over 1 200 thanks to a shock wave
that blew out windows across the city when it exploded in the atmosphere it was more powerful
than a nuclear blast 9. tunguska the awe-inspiring the name tunguskar is one many people recognize
even if they're not sure why it's one of the most famous meteor strikes in history and got a name
drop in the movie ghostbusters back in the day because it happened in relatively recent history
landing in 1908 it's a standout in the history of meteor impacts the meteor landed in remote siberia
and the impact was devastating 800 square miles of forest was destroyed 80 million trees knocked over
making it the largest impact in modern history in unscientific terms it's something of a miracle
that it landed in such a remote part of the world when it would have been far more destructive
almost anywhere else the effects around the world were remarkable the impact was felt in
england people in asia could read by the light in the sky as late as midnight the object itself was
only 120 feet across but it was traveling at 33 500 miles per hour at 220 million pounds the rock
that hit tunguska lit the atmosphere on fire with temperatures reaching 44 500 degrees fahrenheit
the pressure and heat were too much and the meteor exploded with the power of 185 atomic bombs
amazingly there were no reports of a single human fatality even though many felt the impact and were
literally knocked over by it many miles away 8. hobbit the bulky there's no doubt that many of
the meteorites that have hit the earth across billions of years have been pretty big if the
one that killed the dinosaurs was seven miles wide you have to assume it weighed a lot but we don't
often discover large pieces of these things they explode on impact or in the case of extremely old
ones they just get worn down by years and years of erosion but that means somewhere in the world
there has to be a meteorite that qualifies as the heaviest one ever found and hoba is that meteorite
found in a farmer's field in namibia hoba is a chunk of iron that weighs a stunning 66 tons at
nine feet by nine feet it's incredibly dense and when the farmer discovered it he obviously had no
way to remove it over the years pieces have been taken away for research and others have been cut
off by looters cobra is believed to be 80 000 years old and is made up of mostly iron with
about 16 nickel and a tiny bit of other metals tossed in for good measure the surrounding soil
is loaded with iron oxides which means that it likely weighed a lot more when it landed 80 000
years ago but has shrunk thanks to eons of rusting aside from the remarkable size hobart also has the
unique feature of being craterless for a meteor of that size there should have been a massive crater
scientists have speculated that since it's large and flat it may have come in at a greatly reduced
velocity basically acting as its own parachute before it hit the ground 7. vreda fought the
powerful once upon a time the earth probably was shaping up very differently than it looks today
of course some major geographical events have happened to reshape the world and life on it such
as the meteorite that killed off the dinosaurs but well we'll be getting to that later for now
consider the redefault crater in africa which was not just a bigger impact than the one that killed
the dinosaurs but the biggest impact in earth's history a lot has changed in two billion years but
as near as we can figure when the object landed at reda fort it left a crater about 186 miles across
the size of the meteor itself is thought to be somewhere between 3 miles and 6 miles in diameter
that makes it smaller than the one that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs but the crater it
left was much larger thanks to the velocity it's estimated that the meteor was traveling at about
44 700 miles per hour when it hit the earth number six enses i'm the old entertime was a walled city
in france that saw the skies open back in 1492 and deposited a large chunk of rock from the
heavens right on their doorstep the locals had never experienced anything like it and being
1492 had only one explanation it was sent by god the very idea of rocks in space was unheard of at
that point in time factor in that it came to earth on a trail of fire with a sonic boom and you can
imagine what they thought the town magistrate had the meteorite brought to the church was actually
chained up to keep it from going anywhere the holy roman emperor would declare the rock a
wonder from god thanks to its special recognition and status the meteorite persevered through the
centuries where many others would have been lost it stands as the oldest preserved meteorite in
europe number five 2008 tc3 the tract the movie armageddon was one of the big disaster movies of
the 1990s and featured a storyline about mankind discovering an asteroid heading for earth and
their subsequent plan to blow it up and save the planet there was a lot of goofiness in the movie
space dementia anybody but one of the few things people thought about when watching it was just how
common it might be to track meteor from space to the earth and the answer was not very back in 2008
the meteorite known as 2008 tc3 became the first ever meteorite to be tracked all the way to earth
that means we saw it in space we watched it enter the atmosphere and then we picked it up off the
ground after and that had never happened before luckily for us 2008 tc3 was small and didn't pose
any threat but it has helped us understand more about the paths that asteroids take in space and
may one day help us predict when they're on their way a little sooner number four valera the killer
october 15 1972 was a historic day and for one cow the worst day of its life this was the day
the valero meteorite came to earth in trujillo venezuela it wasn't a giant meteorite but it
is arguably the most unique meteorite to hit the ground in human history it's the only one we know
of that has ever caused a fatality it killed a cow when the meteorite was discovered it was next to
the body of a cow that had head crushed the town's people subsequently ate the cow and the rock was
given the prestigious honor of becoming a doorstop it wasn't until sometime later that the rock was
studied and determined to have come from space that confirmed the noble cow it destroyed was the
only life form in human history that was directly hit by a meteor it's not the nicest way to get
into the history books but at least it's something number three aguazarkus the lifebringer to many
people a meteorite is just a rock from space it's interesting because it's from space but it ends
there those in the know realize there's a lot more to space rocks than all of that especially
when you get into what you mean by rock not every meteorite is created equal and the composition of
some of them holds far greater ramifications than many people realize perhaps the best example of
this is the agusarcus meteorite the agrizarcus meteorite was a carbonaceous chondrite which
is something extremely rare for a space rock it wasn't just a piece of iron it was a remnant from
some time when the solar system was new these kind of meteorites are loaded with organic compounds
like amino acids and nuclear bases these are the precursors of life compounds that are in the basic
structures found in genetic molecules like rna it's believed that these kind of meteors may have
actually kick-started life on earth billions of years ago to have another one land is like winning
the lottery before aguasarco scientists only had access to one other such meteor that was much
older and less fresh the older a meteorite like this get the more likely it is to be contaminated
those amino acids and organic compounds may come from earth from the ground where it landed from
people handling it and so on so the sooner one can be found the better agua's sarcas landed
in 2019. the curator of the meteorite collection at chicago's field museum said that if he had to
start a brand new meteorite museum and could only choose one meteorite in all the world to be in it
he would choose agriosarcus number two allen hills 84001 the confusing it doesn't have the
most remarkable name but alh 84001 otherwise known as allen hills 84001 has been one of the
most interesting meteors to ever come to earth for one very small and very significant reason
this was the meteor that scientists thought might indicate the presence of life on mars
back in 1996 the science world was abuzz with the potential ramifications of what researchers from
nasa claimed they had discovered the meteor was actually found back in 1984. the rock came from
mars from 4 billion years ago way back when there was liquid water on the planet's surface it was
the latest study that proved so controversial and enticing to many in the science community in the
world at large researchers believe that they had discovered evidence in the rock of microbial life
magnetite particles believed to only form as a result of biological processes or in other words
life life that had existed on mars some were quick to point out that this was by no means
conclusive and not every scientist agreed confirming evidence of microbial life on
another planet 4 billion years ago is about as hard as you might think later research has led
most in the scientific community to agree that the unique features of the meteor do not indicate life
but the impact of the meteor not on the ground in iceland but on our species and science as a
whole was felt around the world number 1. chikshalubh the world ender the chichalov
impactor is the less than intimidating name given to the object that fell from space and ended
most of life on earth around 66 million years ago this is the reason that the only dinosaurs we see
today are in jurassic park three quarters of the life on earth died after this hit home the crater
left behind is 93 miles across and 12 miles deep make no mistake this was a massive impact
there's a theory that the impactor broke away from the oort cloud a giant interstellar garbage storm
at the edge of the solar system that's full of asteroids and comets the gravitational field
of jupiter may have snagged it and sent it on a path directly for the sun as it orbited the sun
it broke into pieces and then on the return trip one of those pieces hit the earth and
left it utterly devastated so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please
do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching