30 A Blaze of Glory

At night you may see a fireball streak across the sky, or a star may appear to burst and fall. These are both examples of meteors—the bits of dust or rock from space that burn up as they enter the earth's atmosphere. Occasionally a meteor is so big that it survives the journey through our atmosphere and falls to earth. It is then called a meteorite.

In August of 1971, a meteorite crashed through the roof of a storehouse on a farm in Finland. To-Erik Andersson heard a loud noise and rushing to the storeroom, found a dark gray rock about the size of a plum. Through its thin crust the rock was a small black rock. It was unusually heavy for its size. A few months earlier, a similar meteorite had crashed through the roof of Paul Cassarino's home in Wethersfield, Connecticut. This meteorite was spotted the meteorite when it was still in the meteor stage. About an hour before it landed in Wethersfield, it was observed as a streak of light shooting through the Connecticut sky. In Mountains, Texas, in 1998, a two-pound glowing white rock whizzed noisily into the front yard of Alvaro Lytles. He and his friends were playing basketball on the driveway at the time.

Meteors are beautiful and fascinating sights, and when they come crashing to earth they are very interesting too, because meteorites provide them with an excellent opportunity to study materials from outer space without the expense of space travel.

30 荣耀之光

夜晚，你可能会看到火球划过天空，或是星星看似爆裂坠落。这些都是流星的例子——流星是来自太空的尘埃或岩石碎片，在进入地球大气层时燃烧殆尽。偶尔会有流星大到能穿过大气层并坠落到地球，这时它就被称为陨石。

1971年8月，一块陨石穿过芬兰一个农场仓库的屋顶。托-埃里克·安德森听到巨大的声响，冲向仓库，发现了一块李子大小的深灰色岩石。透过薄薄的外壳，里面是一块黑色的小岩石，它的重量相对于体积来说异常沉重。几个月前，一块类似的陨石穿过了康涅狄格州韦瑟斯菲尔德的保罗·卡萨里诺家的屋顶。这块陨石在流星阶段就被发现了，在坠落到韦瑟斯菲尔德前约一小时，人们观测到它是一道划过康涅狄格天空的光带。1998年，在得克萨斯州的山区，一块两磅重的发光白色岩石呼啸着飞入阿尔瓦罗·莱茨的前院，当时他和朋友们正在车道上打篮球。

流星是美丽而迷人的景象，当它们坠落到地球时也非常有趣，因为陨石为人们提供了一个绝佳的机会，可以在不花费太空旅行成本的情况下研究来自外太空的物质。