Studying 75 meteorites falling to Earth, scientists have identified the seven stages a space rock goes through as it crashes through our atmosphere, each of which is determined by different physical processes.
The research found that there are more factors than mere evaporation that determine how fragments of asteroids and comets lose mass and speed passing through the atmosphere before slamming into the ground as meteorites. As well as just "burning up" in the atmosphere, space rocks also go through periods of melting and fragmentation that occur at different altitudes.
