Space rocks are collapsing on Earth carrying compounds that formed billions of years ago. Spaceships perform fanciful flips in the air, but explode when they reach back too fast. And sometimes iguanas fall from trees and land on their feet, frozen on the ground.
Here is a list of seven interesting objects – and some reptiles – that made headlines for falling from the sky.
Explosive green fireball over the Tasman Sea
(CSIRO)
Researchers captured an incredible video when a bright, green meteor passed over the south coast of Tasmania, Australia – although, unfortunately, the video is black and white.
A research vessel called investigator, which is operated by the Australian National Science Agency, CSIRO, filmed the fireball as it burst into the Earth’s atmosphere, crossed the sky and then disintegrated over the Tasman Sea.
People who witnessed the meteor directly said it looked green with the naked eye.
Rainbow meteorite found in Costa Rica
(Laurence Garvie / Center for Meteorite Studies / Arizona State University)
A rainbow-colored space rock broke over Costa Rica in 2019 and scattered debris between the villages of La Palmera and Aguas Zarcas. Now, ongoing studies suggest that the fireball may contain the chemical elements of life.
The soft meteor initially detached from a larger asteroid, which formed dust from an old nebula. Even that nebula will later give birth to our Solar System. The rainbow meteor contains complex carbon compounds, which can include amino acids, which can bind to form proteins and molecules such as DNA.
The sudden explosion of a SpaceX prototype
(SpaceX)
SpaceX’s Starship program launched a prototype called the SN8 during a high-altitude test flight and everything went according to plan – other than landing. The prototype took off from the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas and raised about 12.5 kilometers into the sky, performing complex aerial maneuvers on the road.
The vehicle then landed on a designated landing sign on the ground, but entered too quickly and burst into flames. The blast occurred just 6 minutes and 42 seconds after takeoff.
A meteorite in Michigan
(Heck et al., Field Museum)
A meteorite crashed into the sky over Hamburg, Michigan, and the pieces fell on a frozen lake below. That was in January 2018; this year, after thoroughly analyzing the space rock, scientists announced that the meteorite contains thousands of organic compounds that formed billions of years ago.
The compounds date back to the early days of our solar system, which means that meteorites that crashed on young Earth could have carried similar molecules. At the time, organic compounds in meteors could have been incorporated into primitive microbes, the team said, so studying the Michigan meteor can give us a glimpse into early life on the planet.
The remains of comets could have leveled an ancient Syrian village
(Jennifer Rice / CometResearchGroup.org)
The prehistoric village of Abu Hureyra in northern Syria was home to the first known farmers on Earth, but then a mysterious fire incident destroyed the city, leaving mostly carbon-covered reed huts.
Among the debris, excavators also found glass spheres formed from melting soil, molten samples rich in iron and sulfur and nanodiamonds.
Scientists recently examined these glassy materials more closely and found that they could only have formed at temperatures above 3,630 F (2,000 C). The team concluded that fragments of a passing comet probably exploded over the village, releasing an intense heat wave that burned the village and the ground beneath it.
The asteroid that kills the dinosaurs hit at the worst possible angle
(Chase Stone)
The monstrous space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs hit the Earth at such a steep angle that the dinosaurs never had a chance. The scientists modeled the asteroid’s path and found that it struck at an angle of about 60 degrees above the horizon.
Compared to shallower impact angles, this trajectory caused the asteroid to release three times more sulfur and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to the model. The impacted gas triggered global climate change and killed 75% of all life on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
Iguanas are raining on Floridians
(Chase Stone)
“Cold temperatures with a chance of reptiles falling” – this is essentially the warning sent by the National Meteorological Service when the temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) in South Florida.
This is because when the weather cools, the iguanas that usually hang from the tops of trees become too old to stand on the branches. As their metabolism slows down, the lizards freeze, fall to the ground and look dead; but once the weather warms up, they come back into action.
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.