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Re: When Does a Meteorite become a Meteorite?

To All:

Well, I guess this issue (or issues) is worth some discussion so we all
speak the same language, or understand each other's languages. Websters
III International gives "meteoroid" to be the object in space or the
pre-incandescent particle "without relation to the phenomena it produces
when entering the earth's atmosphere."

When the meteoroid by that definition (which sounds good to me) produces
the phenomena (i.e., flame or luminosity) you apparently want to call
the phenomena a "meteor" and I want to call the particle AND the
phenomena it produces a "meteor." By your definition, in the dark period
the "meteor" would have ceased to exist and the particle would still be
a "meteoroid" (and therefore no new definition would be needed for the
dark period; unless--as someone suggested--you call it a meteorite
during the dark period which I think only complicates matters worse).

Are there any other opinions or viewpoints? This is not a trivial issue,
for reasons of clear communication. If I have been wrong about my
definition(s), then I will have learned something here that will help me
to talk the same language or dialect in the future. -- Richard

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