Hoe kan een pasgevallen meteoriet extreem koud zijn?

Het antwoord luidt:


Objects from space that enter Earth's atmosphere are -- like space itself -- very cold and they remain so even as they blaze a hot-looking trail toward the ground. "The outer layers are warmed by atmospheric friction, and little bits flake away as they descend," explains Yeomans. This is called ablation and it's a wonderful way to remove heat. (Some commercial heat shields use ablation to keep spacecraft cool when they re- enter Earth's atmosphere.) "Rocky asteroids are poor conductors of heat," Yeomans continued. "Their central regions remain cool even as the hot outer layers are ablated away."


Dus, ze zijn dan zo koud van binnen, dat de kern koud blijft ondanks de gloeiend hete schil die er in stukjes afbreken tijdens de intrede in de dampkring. Dat zou dus 'ablatie' heten. Die techniek wordt dus ook gebruikt bij hitteschilden bij terugkerende ruimtevaartuigen.