89 What's the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites?
Description
This article is from the Astronomy FAQ, by Joseph Lazio (jlazio@patriot.net) with numerous contributions by others.
89 What's the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites?
Briefly, a meteoroid is piece of cosmic debris in the solar system.
It becomes a meteor when it enters Earth's atmosphere and begins to
glow brightly. It becomes a meteorite if it survives and hits the
ground.
Three FAQs on different aspects of meteors and meteorites are
maintained by the American Meteor Society at
<URL:http://www.serve.com/meteors/>.
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