Meteorite

The Stones from Outer Space That Made Our World

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About this listen

Every rock has a story tell, and none more so than those which have fallen from the sky: meteorites. Originating in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, these rocky fragments offer clues not just to the earliest origins of the Solar System but also to Earth's very survival into the future.

Sky at Night presenter Dr Tim Gregory takes us on a journey through the very earliest days of our Solar System to the spectacular meteorite falls that produced 'fiery rain' in 1792, to the pre-solar grains (literally stardust) that were blown in from other solar systems and are the oldest solid objects ever discovered on earth.

Meteorites reveal a story much bigger than ourselves or our planet. As Tim says, 'It is an epic beyond compare.'

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Tim GregoryTim GregoryJohn Murray

Earth Sciences

Science

Solar System

Astronomy

Earth Sciences Science Solar System Astronomy

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I took a chance on this book, being interested in space and astronomy. I wondered if it would be too dry or perhaps the subject matter would not stretch to the running time. How wrong I was. This is a book I listened to whilst out on longish walks. It transported me out of this earthly plane into the heavens. Such captivating and interesting information relayed in a breathless enthusiasm. It won't be too long before I need to re-listen to the whole book. There was a particular passage, dealing with fragments from other, now gone, solar systems surviving in the furnace of our own systems birth, which really gave me pause and wonderment about our amazing creation and existence.

I recall when I was a young boy, on a bitterly cold clear Christmas Eve night patiently waiting for my turn to buy sweets from the local ice cream van, when my and the other waiting customers attention was drawn from the bright interior of the van to an amazing sight. A shooting star crossed, it appeared, right over our heads, but unlike the momentary white streaks of typical shooting stars, this seemed to take its time to roll across the sky, starting off white, then yellow, darkening to orange as it vanished over the horizon to the Braes in Paisley. It seemed to my young eyes to be like a sparkler with bits fizzing off the meteor as it traveled. And, this may be memory cheating, but my old memory recalls a hissing sound as it passed over our heads. I have seem many meteors in the intervening years, but none like this. I even, as a child, contemplated going after the rock where it had passed behind the Gleniffer Braes.