When a meteoroid hits Earth, it’s not because the space rock has “fallen out of” its orbit. It’s because its orbit crosses over Earth’s orbit at the exact right (or wrong) moment.

Science Writer and Cartoonist JoAnna Wendel created a beautiful gif to explain how a meteoroid hits Earth.

How a meteoroid hits Earth
Chicxulub impact
Artist’s rendering of a bolide impact. The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a mass extinction of some three-quarters of plant and animal species on Earth –including all non-avian dinosaurs– that occurred over a geologically short period of time, 66 million years ago. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it, the entire Mesozoic Era, opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today. Image credit: Joe Tucciarone/Science Photo Library
How fast do meteorites hit the ground

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M. Özgür Nevres
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