Meteorite shock stage

Okay kiddo, imagine you're playing outside and you find a rock on the ground. That rock may have been there for a long time, right? Well, some rocks didn't start on Earth. Some rocks, like meteorites, come from space and can travel through the atmosphere and land on Earth.

When a meteorite lands on Earth, it goes through something called a "shock stage." This means that the meteorite gets shaken up a lot and can change its appearance and even its structure. It's like if you were riding in a bumpy car and your hair got all messed up, it's still your hair but it's a little different.

There are different levels of shock stage, just like how there are different levels of spiciness for hot sauce. The first level is called "S1" (short for shock stage 1). This means the meteorite experienced very little shaking and looks pretty much how it did when it left its original planet or asteroid.

But if a meteorite gets shaken more, it can move up to a higher shock stage. The highest level is "S6." At this stage, the rock has been squished and deformed so much that it looks like a completely different rock!

So, the shock stage of a meteorite tells scientists how much it has been through and they can use that information to learn more about how the solar system was formed billions of years ago. Pretty neat, huh?