if a meteoroid hits earth's surface it is called meteorite.
if a meteoroid hits earth's surface it is called meteorite.
if a meteoroid hits earth's surface it is called?
meteorite
when meteoroids intersect with earth's atmosphere at night, they are likely to become visible as meteors. if meteoroids survive the entry through the atmosphere and reach earth's surface, they are called meteorites. meteorites are transformed in structure and chemistry by the heat of entry and force of impact. a noted asteroid, , was observed in space on a collision course with earth on 6 october 2008 and entered earth's atmosphere the next day, striking a remote area of northern sudan. it was the first time that a meteoroid had been observed in space and tracked prior to impacting earth. nasa has produced a map showing the most notable asteroid collisions with earth and its atmosphere from 1994 to 2013 from data gathered by u.s. government sensors (see below).
meteoroid
fireballs reaching apparent magnitude −14 or brighter are called bolides. the iau has no official definition of "bolide", and generally considers the term synonymous with "fireball". astronomers often use "bolide" to identify an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes. they are sometimes called detonating fireballs "(also see list of meteor air bursts)". it may also be used to mean a fireball which creates audible sounds. in the late twentieth century, bolide has also come to mean any object that hits earth and explodes, with no regard to its composition (asteroid or comet). the word "bolide" comes from the greek βολίς ("bolis") which can mean "a missile" or "to flash". if the magnitude of a bolide reaches −17 or brighter it is known as a superbolide. a relatively small percentage of fireballs hit earth's atmosphere and then pass out again: these are termed earth-grazing fireballs. such an event happened in broad daylight over north america in 1972. another rare phenomena is a meteor procession, where the meteor breaks up into several fireballs traveling nearly parallel to the surface of earth.
meteoroid