![]() ![]() This makes sense, because the bigger ones have more to get burned away on their way to the surface, while the smaller ones disintegrate into nothing. Meteorites tend to be bigger than the meteors that burn up before making it to the surface. A particularly bright meteor can be called a bolide or a fireball, especially if it explodes.Ī meteorite is “a mass of stone or metal that has reached Earth from space.” In other words, a meteorite is a meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere but does not burn up entirely, instead surviving to crash into the surface. What’s visible from Earth is a bright, fiery streak in the sky, and we also use the word meteor to refer to that streak (as opposed to the body itself). The friction from the atmosphere makes it heat up and glow, sometimes making it visible as it streaks through the sky. We’ve started with the word meteoroid because meteoroids can become meteors or meteorites.Ī meteor is a “a meteoroid that has entered Earth’s atmosphere.” Basically, it’s a small body of rock or metal that used to travel around in space, but that got sucked into Earth’s gravity. In the context of these terms, the word meteor might sound like the most general, but that’s not actually the case. A meteoroid is significantly smaller than an asteroid, ranging from small grains or particles to the size of large boulders.” In other words, a meteoroid is a “space rock” smaller than an asteroid. ![]()
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