Howardites

A printable worksheet for the lesson Where do meteorites come from? (Start here: Beginner). It prints on A4 without the website around it. The answers are on a separate sheet for the teacher.

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Start here: Beginner · Ages 7 and upHowardites worksheet

Where do meteorites come from?

Name:Class:Date:

Key words

Meteorite
A meteorite is a piece of space rock that has survived its fall through the air and landed on Earth.
Asteroid belt
The wide ring of space between Mars and Jupiter where most known asteroids travel around the Sun.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, a cold, rocky world with ancient river valleys; some meteorites come from it.
Orbit
An orbit is the curved path one object follows around another under gravity, such as Earth around the Sun.
Planet
A planet is a large, round body orbiting a star that has cleared its path of most other material.
Cosmic-ray exposure age
An estimate of how long a meteoroid travelled through space as a small body, based on the effects of cosmic rays on its atoms.

Choose the right answer

Circle the letter of the right answer.

  1. Why do cosmic rays change hardly any atoms in rock buried deep inside an asteroid?
    • ACosmic rays only change metal
    • BThe buried rock is far too hot
    • CThe rock above shields it
    • DCosmic rays only ever reach Earth
  2. Which piece of a broken asteroid could one day become a meteorite?
    • AA chip that stays in the middle of the asteroid belt
    • BA chip nudged onto a path that crosses Earth's orbit
    • CA chip that drifts far out beyond Jupiter
    • DA chip that falls all the way into giant Jupiter
  3. Two meteorites are tested. One has many more atoms changed by cosmic rays. What does that suggest?
    • AIt came from a much bigger asteroid than the other
    • BIt fell to Earth much faster than the other one
    • CIt spent longer travelling through space on its own
    • DIt formed much more recently than the other
  4. What do scientists call the time a meteorite spent travelling alone through space?
    • AIts fusion crust age
    • BIts cosmic-ray exposure age
    • CIts terrestrial landing age
    • DIts asteroid belt age

True or false?

Is the answer given right? Tick True or False.

  1. Why must an impact on Mars be very powerful to send a rock to Earth?

    Answer given: It has to throw the rock right off Mars into space TrueFalse

  2. Why did the rocks in the asteroid belt never join together to make a planet?

    Answer given: Mars kept pulling them apart TrueFalse

Write your answer

Answer in a word or a short sentence.

  1. Which order tells a meteorite's three stories correctly?
  2. A spacecraft flies straight through the asteroid belt. What is most likely to happen?

Task

Draw the Sun in the middle of a big sheet of paper. Add the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars as circles, then shade a wide band for the asteroid belt and draw Jupiter outside it.

Howardites · free to copy for use in your classroom · answers are on the separate teacher's answer sheet