Tommy Adams, age 12, of Wichita Kansas, for his question:

What is the coating on a meteorite?

Chances are a meteorite will be covered with a dark, crusty coat. It may also be pitted with round holes. This is how we can usually recognize a meteorite when we see it on the ground. It looks for all the world as though it has been charred in a seething furnace, which is just about what happened.

A meteor is a stone from the skies. For untold ages it drifted through space as a lump of rock or metal. It was a meteor. Then it collided with the earth. It swooped down, down through the air and friction set up terrific heat. The meteor's coat was red hot and molten.

When it hit the earth it became a meteorite. Its coat cooled to form a dark, charred crust, for it never recovered from that red hot fall through the air.