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So the first amino acids on Earth – the fundamental building blocks of life – may have formed in the depths of space and delivered to the Earth on meteorites. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe: Stardust 2/4, BBC 2011
In the last few years the blue ice of the Antarctic has yielded a large collection of these missiles from the past. Horizon: Message in the Rocks, BBC 1979
Bombardment by meteorites and debris left over from the start of the solar system produced enormous heat. ibid.
The vast majority of iridium-bearing meteorites started life as asteroids, most of them in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter ... Luis’ [Alvarez] theory is that sixty-five million years ago a huge asteroid six miles wide smashed into the earth with devastating effect. Horizon: Death of the Dinosaurs, BBC 1981
The asteroid may have landed in the sea. ibid.
For the residents of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk the morning of Friday February 15th 2013 began like any other ... A fireball brighter than the sun appeared from nowhere before exploding with the power of thirty Hiroshimas. The Truth About Meteors: A Horizon Special, BBC 2013
On June 30th 1908 a huge explosion tore through the forest of Tunguska, Siberia. ibid.
The extinction happened over a period of 100,000 years. Far too long to be the result of a meteor strike. The Greenland team’s discovery means that something else must have caused the extinction. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe III: Planet of Fire, Channel 4 2008
Lake Guatavita in Colombia said to be the site of an ancient meteor crater … the search for El Dorado. Ancient Aliens s3e4: Aliens and Temples of Gold, History 2011
A meteor impact that sent shockwaves around the world ... 65 million years ago they disappeared [dinosaurs] from the fossil record. David Attenborough’s Rise of the Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates: Dawn of the Mammals, BBC 2013
If one small and odd lineage of fishes had not evolved fins capable of bearing weight on land (though evolved for different reasons in lakes and seas) terrestrial vertebrates would never have arisen. If a large extraterrestrial object – the ultimate random bolt from the blue – had not triggered the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, mammals would still be small creatures, confined to the nooks and crannies of a dinosaur’s world, and incapable of evolving the larger size that brains big enough for self-consciousness require. If a small and tenuous population of proto-humans had not survived a hundred slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (and potential extinction) on the savannahs of Africa, then Homo sapiens would never have emerged to spread throughout the globe. We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction. Stephen Jay Gould
Off the New Zealand coast, yes. The Chinese actually have a very ancient map in their possession. It was drawn about 1418 and it includes Australia, New Zealand ... This expedition: it was an attempted circumnavigation of the world ... And more than a hundred ships, and these ships carried between them 28,000 people set out in 1421 ... Documents from ancient China talk about this catastrophe: a huge meteor struck the sea less than a hundred miles from the fleet ... Investigation recently down along the coast and inland high up ... has produced the remains actually of sixty embedded ships. Jonathan Gray, interview Coast to Coast Hidden Discoveries
Meteor showers are one of the most spectacular events in the night sky. And the reason is because the Earth actually goes through the tail of a comet. A comet is like a litter-bug. It has a tremendously long tail containing debris of ice crystals and rock and dust, and as the Earth goes through this trail of debris we see literally hundreds of shooting stars throughout the night sky. Professor Michio Kaku, interview Cosmic Collisions: Earth, Discovery 2009
A Martian meteorite lies buried in Antarctica for thirteen thousand years until its discovery at Allan Hills in 1984. More precious than any other rock on Earth this sample was to become the most talked about and most carefully examined geological specimen in history. Solar Empire: Impact! Discovery 2007
Meteorites can land anywhere in the world. And every so often these meteorites are actually dislodged chunks of other planets. Cosmic Collisions: Solar System, Discovery 2009
There is a hierarchy of meteorite value: the rarest rocks are worth the most. Meteorites from Mars are thirty-five times more valuable than gold in weight. ibid.
World’s Largest Hand Dug Well & Meteorite. Brenham, Kansas welcome sign
More than seventy varieties of amino acids have been found inside meteorites, and eight of them are the fundamental constituents of proteins found in living cells. The Day the Earth Was Born, Channel 4 2002
Every year thousands of tons of material from outer space rains down on our planet’s surface. Most of the time we’re unaware. But sometimes it can’t be ignored. Around the world people have reported finding strange matter where these meteors fall. Sometimes it’s a gelatinous goo. Other times it looks like it’s raining blood. Paranatural s1e3: Blood Rain and Star Jelly, National Geographic 2010
November 28th 2001, Manchester, England ... Mera [Paranormal Investigator] searches for anything that could have fallen from a recent meteor shower. And finds something completely unexpected. A gelatinous blob. It has a smell often associated with meteoric rock. An odour similar to rotten eggs. ibid.
Dr Dan Rolph of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has found hundreds of historical accounts of strange substances falling from the sky. But one story in particular stands out ... ‘Flying Saucer Just Dissolves’. ibid.
August 1994 ... A strange gelatinous rain pummels the tiny town of Oakville, Washington. ibid.
Murchison, Australia, September 28th 1969: in the morning hours residents of this coastal town see a bright ball of fire shooting through the sky. Then, moments later, it rains rocks. Scientists later collect more than ninety kilograms of meteoric material ... They find amino acids. ibid.
On the other side of the planet meteor showers bring another strange rain. July 2001 India: people hear an explosion in the sky. Then as it does every year the summer monsoon brings heavy rainfall in southern India. When the rain comes it is blood-red. ibid.
Star jelly sightings after meteor showers occur around the world. But recently many reports are coming from Scotland. ibid.
We have actually found meteorites here on Earth that are undeniably from Mars – about fifty of them known. Professor Alex Filippenko
The race is on to recover fragments ... Earth’s latest visitor could provide answers to the origins of life and the origins of our solar system. 25th September 2009 ... A meteor hurtles towards Earth at a blistering 74,000 miles per hour. Alien Fireballs
Meteorites fall to Earth every day. ibid.
In 2008 a dashboard camera on a police vehicle captures this fireball descending over Canada. And in 2010 amateur video captures this fireball over Wisconsin. But one of the most widely seen meteorite falls in recent history was this fireball of Peekskill, New York. It fell 9th October 2002 and was seen by thousands in eastern US. ibid.
Most meteorites come from the Asteroid Belt. ibid.
These chondrules are some of the oldest objects in our solar system. ibid.
More than 80% of all meteorites that fall to Earth are chondrites. ibid.
Chondrules are clumps of crystalised minerals. ibid.
While the Roman Emperor prepared for a battle he saw a light in the sky. Which he interpreted as a sign from God. Many believe it persuaded him and the Roman Empire to covert to Christianity. But just what did Constantine see in the sky? Fireball of Christ, 2011
Maybe linked to the catastrophic impact of a meteorite. ibid.
February 2013: the world’s astronomers watched an asteroid sailing past our planet. The problem was – they were looking the wrong way ... No-one spotted the second space rock. Meteor Strike: Fireball from Space, Channel 4 2013
It was bigger than a double-decker bus ... At 9.20 the space rock hit the atmosphere. ibid.
Bizarrely, the explosion caused not a sound ... At 9.22 the missing big bang arrived. ibid.
The blast injured close to a thousand people. ibid.