NASA’s asteroid sample mission was important for meteor research. Here’s why

More than 80 researchers from a dozen-plus institutions recently worked together to study an ‘artificial meteor’ as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere.

Earth is constantly bombarded by fragments of rock and ice, also known as meteoroids, from outer space. Most of the meteoroids are as tiny as grains of sand and small pebbles, and they completely burn up high in the atmosphere. You can see meteoroids larger than about a golf ball when they light up as meteors or shooting stars on a dark, clear night.