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Hi, everyone! [yawn]
Oh, sorry about that! I got to The Fort pretty early this morning, so I’m still a little sleepy.
[Sam] Mister Brown, Mister Brown!
[Mister Brown] Oh, hey!
Good morning, Sam! You’re here awfully early.
[Sam] Yeah!
It’s because I’ve made an amazing discovery: a space rock
[Mister Brown] Whoa, where did you find this?
[Sam] Well,
I was up late last night looking at the stars, like I usually do.
But this time, there were lots of shooting stars — bright lights streaking across the sky!
And then, when I went outside this morning, I found this super weird rock on the ground.
It didn’t look anything like the rocks around it, and it looked so cool and different,
I had to bring it for you to see. I think it’s from space
[Mister Brown] Ooh, let me see.
You know, Sam, I think this could be from space!
Well, everyone… I think it’s time to do some meteorite tests.
When we look up at the night sky, we mostly just see stars.
But if you had a really powerful telescope, you could also see that space is full of rocks, just zooming around.
These rocks come in all shapes and sizes,
and sometimes, they get into the layer of air all around Earth, called the atmosphere.
And when they do, they fall really fast towards the ground.
In fact, the rocks fall so fast that they start to get
really hot as they move through the atmosphere. And then, they burn up!
And when they do, they can leave a bright streak of light across the sky.
Sound familiar, Sam?
[Sam] That sounds like the shooting stars I saw!
[Mister Brown] Exactly! When those rocks are burning up in our atmosphere, we call them shooting stars, or meteors.
I mean, they aren’t really stars.
We just call them that because they’re bright lights in the night sky, like real stars are.
Most of the time, those meteors burn up nearly all the way, so there’s almost no rock left.
But sometimes, pieces of rock make it all the way to Earth’s surface.
If they hit the ground, we call them meteorites.
Most meteorites are small,
usually no bigger than my hand, and they’re made out of bits of crystal or iron.
Crystals aren’t rocks, but they look like them.
They’re hard, usually have lots of straight lines,
and are sometimes clear or a bit see through in places
A lot like rocky candy!
And iron is a really hard, shiny metal.
[Sam] So... you’re saying that this could be a meteorite.
[Mister Brown] It could be! But let’s run some tests to find out.
There are lots of different rocks here on Earth,
so there are some tests you can do right at home to see if you might have found a real meteorite.
The tests have to do with the properties of the rock.
Those are things you can observe or notice about it, like its color and shape.
And you’ve already finished the first test, Sam!
[Sam] What do you mean?
[Mister Brown] Well, the first test is to see whether your rock is like other rocks nearby.
Does it match the other rocks in the area, or does it stand out?
So, Sam, compared to other nearby rocks, was this one a different color, or texture, or shape?
[Sam] None of the other rocks nearby looked or felt like it! The other rocks were all gray or red, and round.
[Mister Brown] Alright, let’s move on to the second test: color.
Meteorites get to Earth after burning through the atmosphere. And when they burn, they normally
change colors. It’s just like how wood or paper turns black when you burn it in a campfire.
So, meteorites normally have a layer of black or dark brown color on the outside.
[Sam] My rock is really dark brown! Maybe because it was burning in space!
[Mister Brown] Alright! So far so good,
but let’s look at shape next.
Meteorites usually aren’t perfect circles or squares.
Instead, they have irregular or unusual shapes — like, they might look really lumpy.
But an important thing is, they also feel smooth, and don’t have any holes in them.
[Sam] Well, this rock is shaped like a meteorite, and it doesn’t have any holes in it. But it’s not that smooth.
[Mister Brown] Alright! Let’s take a look at the next test, then.
This is a test to see how dense the rock is. We say an object is really dense when it’s pretty small, but also really heavy for its size!
If you pick up a small object and it’s way heavier than it looks, that’s probably a good sign that it’s dense.
Meteorites are really dense, so they have a lot of stuff packed into a small space.
This makes them a lot heavier than Earth rocks that are the same size.
I actually brought some rocks in from the garden earlier this morning so I could learn more about them,
so we can compare how heavy they feel!
[Sam] How heavy does that feel compared to my rock?
[Mister Brown] You know, your rock does feel pretty heavy. I think it’s pretty dense!
[Sam] Whoa, does this mean it’s a meteorite?!
[Mister Brown] Let’s do one last test, just to be sure.
We’re going to test if your rock is magnetic. Do you remember what meteorites are made of, Sam?
[Sam] Totally! They’re made of crystals or metal.
[Mister Brown] That’s right!
Most meteorites have the metal iron in them. And iron sticks to magnets!
When something sticks to a magnet, we call it magnetic.
So if this rock is a meteorite, then the iron in it should make this magnet stick to the rock.
[Sam] Let’s try it!
[Mister Brown] Look at that! It’s magnetic!
So, let’s see what we learned.
This is an unusual rock, and it’s the right color to be a meteorite.
It also has a good, irregular shape like a meteorite.
It is a little rough, but it also doesn’t have holes. It’s also pretty dense and is magnetic!
What do you think, Sam?
[Sam] Hm… That sounds like a meteorite to me!
[Mister Brown] You know, I think you’re right!
Even if it’s not super smooth, it checks all our other boxes. So wow, congrats, Sam! You found a space rock!
[Sam] Whoa! Thanks, Mister Brown! I had a lot of
fun learning about my rock, too. Meteorite testing with you was really cool, and I learned a lot.
Actually… Now, I want to go see if there are any other meteorites outside! I’ll catch you later!
[Mister Brown] I’m glad you enjoyed it! Bye, Sam!
Looks like Sam is excited to explore!
What about you? Do you have any unusual rocks nearby?
Try running meteorite tests on them, and see what you find!
You can keep track of what you learn in a science notebook, or with a chart, like we did!
And if you’d like to continue exploring with me, Sam, Jessi, and all of our other friends, click the subscribe button.
We’ll see you next time, here at The Fort.
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