[meteorite-list] Meteorites 101

From: Count Deiro <countdeiro_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:30:58 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
Message-ID: <17596534.1295134260740.JavaMail.root_at_elwamui-milano.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

Hi Walter and all,

This may be the acceptable nomenclature....

METEOR (mt-r)
1. A bright trail or streak of light that appears in the night sky when a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere. The friction with the air causes the rock to glow with heat. Also called shooting star.
2. A rocky body that produces such light. Most meteors burn up before reaching the Earth's surface. See Note at solar system.
Usage The streaks of light we sometimes see in the night sky and call meteors were not identified as interplanetary rocks until the 19th century. Before then, the streaks of light were considered only one of a variety of atmospheric phenomena, all of which bore the name meteor. Rain was an aqueous meteor, winds and storms were airy meteors, and streaks of light in the sky were fiery meteors. This general use of meteor survives in our word meteorology, the study of the weather and atmospheric phenomena. Nowadays, astronomers use any of three words for rocks from interplanetary space, depending on their stage of descent to the Earth. A meteoroid is a rock in space that has the potential to collide with the Earth's atmosphere. Meteoroids range in size from a speck of dust to a chunk about 100 meters in diameter, though most are smaller than a pebble. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, it becomes a meteor. The light that it gives off when heated by friction with the atmosphere is also called a meteor. If th
e rock is not obliterated by the friction and lands on the ground, it is called a meteorite. For this term, scientists borrowed the -ite suffix used in the names of minerals like malachite and pyrite.

The American Heritage? Science Dictionary Copyright ? 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Best to all,

Count Deiro
IMCA 3536 MetSoc





-----Original Message-----
>From: Walter Branch <waltbranch at bellsouth.net>
>Sent: Jan 15, 2011 3:13 PM
>To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101
>
>Hello Everyone,
>
>The term "meteor" refers to the light phenomenon as an object from space
>enters the Earth's atmosphere. What is the proper term for the object
>itself?
>
>A meteoroid is an object in space. Is it still called a meteoroid when it
>enters the Earth's atmosphere?
>
>-Walter
>
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Received on Sat 15 Jan 2011 06:30:58 PM PST