[meteorite-list] Meteorites 101

From: Walter Branch <waltbranch_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:19:45 -0500
Message-ID: <019801cbb51b$767b07f0$0302a8c0_at_Branch>

Hello Ron,

Yes, that's it. A distinction between the light and the object itself.

So, back to my original question. The object itself is still referred to as
a meteoroid while it is traveling in the Earth's atmosphere.

Your anecdote regarding Dr. Leonard reminded me of the Dorothy Norton
cartoon which appeared in Meteorite a while back, the one about the boy
catching the meteorite....

-Walter


----- Original Message -----
From: "R N Hartman" <rhartman04 at earthlink.net>
To: "Count Deiro" <countdeiro at earthlink.net>; "Walter Branch"
<waltbranch at bellsouth.net>; <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Meteorite1" <meteorite1 at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101


> Meteor, meteorite, and meteoioid:
>
> In response to the American Heritage? Science Dictionary Copyright ? 2005
> by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, which
> is reported here to have stated that the object itself may be termed a
> meteor while in flight through the atmosphere, note that dictionaries are
> not the authoritative source for what an object is or is not.
> Dictionaries reflect only common (popular) usage, and if it is not a
> technical dictionary, more so. I remember being told as a student taking
> a graduate level course in the History and Development of the English
> language that dictionaries may be as much as 50 years behind the times in
> reflecting current usage.
>
> Within the informed scientific community, among those who are
> meteoriticists, a meteor refers to the light phenomena of the meteoroid
> while traversing through our atmosphere, and the object itself remains a
> meteoroid until it strikes the Earth or whatever other astronomical body
> it intercepts. Then it is referred to a meteorite. Note also the term
> micro-meteorites. Sometimes these terms are used incorrectly (and
> sloppily) in a popular, or non-technical sense, usually by the layman (or
> the news media).
>
> I don't think anyone has or will ever be burned at the stake for referring
> to a meteoroid as a meteor, unless they are of course one of my former
> students (joke)! But this is the way I have always seen these terms used
> when used correctly. This is the way I learned it as a student who
> received a degree in Astronomy from U.C.L.A. and who studied under one of
> the world's most respected meteoriticists, Dr. Frederick C.Leonard, who by
> the way was one of the founders of the Meteoritical Society. (Dr. Leonard
> was the first Editor of Meteoritics: the Journal of the Meteoritical
> Society. And, he was a perfectionist with the English Language.) I recall
> a number of discussions in class over these definitions, such as "what
> would we call it if we were carrying a basket, and the meteoroid were to
> land in the basket, rather than hitting the Earth. "Dr. Leonard, would it
> still be a meteoroid?" (He would respond by clearing his throat with a
> faint growl, and ignore our question. But we knew he was fond of us!)
>
> Ron Hartman
>
>>
Received on Sat 15 Jan 2011 08:19:45 PM PST