A Brief Overview of Meteor Terminology:
- Asteroids: Asteroids, also known as planetoids, are objects that orbit the sun, too small to be a dwarf planet, but large enough to get their own identity.
- Meteoroids: These are rocks, orbiting the sun, smaller than asteroids (basically, anything smaller than 10-meters). Many of them burn up in Earth’s atmosphere on entry.
- Meteors: When an asteroid/meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes a meteor (also known as a shooting star). Friction from Earth’s atmosphere causes most meteors to burn up.
- Fireballs: If a meteor is ‘unusually bright’ it is known as a fireball. A fireball is caused by friction from Earth’s atmosphere – it’s just a bigger rock so it burns brighter.
- Bolides: A bolide is a fireball that explodes in midair.
- Meteorite: For those meteors, fireballs, bolides, or fragments there of that survive the trip through the atmosphere and impact the Earth, they become meteorites. A meteorite is basically any non-terrestrial rock that has reached earth.
