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A meteoroid shown entering the atmosphere, causing a visible meteor and hitting the Earth's surface, becoming a meteorite. A meteoroid (/ ˈ m iː t i ə r ɔɪ d / MEE-tee-ə-royd) [1] is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
A meteor air burst is a type of air burst in which a meteoroid explodes after entering a planetary body's atmosphere. This fate leads them to be called fireballs or bolides, with the brightest air bursts known as superbolides. Such meteoroids were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of meters in diameter.
Once it settles on the larger body's surface, the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorites vary greatly in size. For geologists, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater. [2] Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transit the atmosphere and impact Earth are called meteorite falls.
In total, this meteoroid stream is the largest in the inner Solar System. Since the stream is rather spread out in space, Earth takes several weeks to pass through it, causing an extended period of meteor activity, compared with the much smaller periods of activity in other showers.
Meteoritics [note 1] is the science that deals with meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids. [ note 2 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It is closely connected to cosmochemistry , mineralogy and geochemistry . A specialist who studies meteoritics is known as a meteoriticist .
The Leonids are famous because their meteor showers, or storms, can be among the most spectacular. Because of the storm of 1833 and the developments in scientific thought of the time (see for example the identification of Halley's Comet), the Leonids have had a major effect on the scientific study of meteors, which had previously been thought to be atmospheric phenomena.
Meteoric iron – a native metal found in meteorites and a mixture of different mineral phases. Compare telluric iron. Meteorite Observation and Recovery Program – a scientific program that was centered in Canada. Meteoriticist – a scientist working on meteorites, meteors, and meteoroids.
Primitive achondrites are a subdivision of meteorites.They are classified on the same rank (historically called "Class") and lying between chondrites and achondrites.They are called primitive because they are achondrites that have retained much of their original chondritic properties.