[NoLifeLine]

Hi all, just read an interesting article about meteorite formation by the British science journalist Rob Lea. I had never realised that formed cones moving though the atmosphere. I thought that they would tumble and keep a pretty spherical shape.


Heres a snippet and a link to the full article



Meteoroids coming from outer space come in all shapes and sizes, but those which land on earth as meteorites, are found to be carved into a typical conical shape. The reason behind this has been something of a mystery.


To explore the forces that produce cone-shaped meteorites, researchers replicated meteoroids travelling through outer space: clay objects, attached to a rod, served as ‘mock meteorites’ that erode while moving through water.


“While most meteorites are randomly shaped ‘blobs,’ surprisingly many — some say about 25%— are ‘oriented meteorites,’ and complete samples of these look almost like perfect cones.”