Antarctic meteorites yield global bombardment rate

A team of UK scientists has provided a new estimate for the amount of space rock falling to Earth each year. It's in excess of 16,000kg. This is for meteorite material above 50g in mass.

It doesn't take account of the dust that's continuously settling on the planet, and of course just occasionally we'll be hit by a real whopper of an asteroid that will skew the numbers. But the estimate is said to give a good sense of the general quantity of rocky debris raining down from space.

Dr Geoff Evatt spoke with our science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

Image: Geoff Evatt/ University of Manchester

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