Where Do Space Rocks Come From?

Space rocks, or meteorites have been pelting our planet for millions of years. 

Most of those rocks simply burn up in our atmosphere, however there are some collisions that have had a huge impact. 

For a long time, exactly where these meteorites came from remained largely unknown. 

But now there's been a study of the make-up of meteorites that have landed on Earth over the years and the asteroids in our solar system.

From that a team of astronomers have shown that about 70% of known meteorite impacts came from just three groups of asteroids in our solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The research has helped experts to trace the origins of tens of thousands of known meteorites that have landed on Earth. Astronomers carried out computer simulations that enabled them to model the formation and evolution of families of asteroids orbiting the Sun.

The three asteroid families, called Karin, Koronis and Massalia, were formed by collisions in the main asteroid belt 5.8, 7.5 and about 40 million years ago.