WASHINGTON—Meteorites—rocks that fall to Earth from space—have pelted our planet from its birth to today, often causing scant damage but sometimes triggering cataclysms. But from where exactly are these space rocks coming? New research has the answer.
By studying the composition of meteorites that have landed over the years and the asteroids populating our solar system, astronomers have determined that about 70 percent of known meteorite impacts came from just three groups of asteroids residing in our solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
In total, the researchers in three different studies have now been able to account for the origins of most of the tens of thousands of known meteorites that have landed on Earth....
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