Impact scar on Jupiter's surface. In July 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted with Jupiter. One of the biggest impact fragments caused a fireball to erupt 1000 s of kilometres into space before it was dragged back down to the surface by the pull of Jupiter s gravity. Meteorites are objects that have survived the plunge through earth s atmosphere and hit the ground. Aerolites are made of stone and siderites are made of iron.
Meteorites come from the asteroid belt, which is a swarm of objects between Mars and Jupiter.
The gravitational push and pull of the planets cause some of these objects to leave the belt and go off into orbits that can take them close to earth. Many meteorites have been collected, some on display at museums. The largest known meteorite lies near the town of Grootfontein in Southern Africa and weighs over 60 tons. It is thought to have landed in prehistoric times. The most famous meteorite crater is the Barringer Crater in Arizona and is almost a mile wide.