begin quoting John H. Robinson, IV as of Wed, Jun 22, 2005 at 10:28:28AM -0700: > Tracy R Reed wrote: > > John H. Robinson, IV wrote: > > > > > The observant will know that you cannot be hit by a meteor. A meteorite, > > > maybe, but not a meteor. > > > > Unless you are actually in space. Then you could easily be whacked by a > > meteor. So don't go into space. > > False. A meteor is *light* associated with a meteoroid being heated by > the atmoshpere.
Hm. A description and history is given at
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C004/035.html
Thus, the terminology for Earth-bound stones from interplanetary
space is partitioned according to the stones' stages of descent: a
meteoroid is a stone in interplanetary space ranging in size from a
speck of dust to a chunk about 100 meters in diameter--just shy of
being an asteroid; a meteor is the bright flash of light produced by
a meteoroid as it hits Earth's atmosphere and is also used to refer
to the stone itself while it is in Earth's atmosphere; finally, a
meteorite is a meteoroid that has survived the transition through
Earth's atmosphere and rests on Earth's surface.
A meteor is the term for both the light and the stone in transit.
A meteorite is at rest.
A meteroid is in space.
-Stewart "In space, you'd be whacked by a meteroid." Stremler
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