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To: TaraP

I don’t want to be the “Language Police” but....

A “Meteor” is the object (the chunk of rock that falls from the sky).

“Meteorite” is the geological name for the material (type of rock) of which that object is composed.


23 posted on 02/03/2010 12:12:51 PM PST by conservativeharleyguy (Democrats: Over 60 million fooled daily!)
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To: conservativeharleyguy
Wrong.

A meteoroid is a piece of debris in space.

A meteor is the path it takes as it travels through the atmosphere.

A meteorite is a meteor that survives the trip and hits the ground.

32 posted on 02/03/2010 12:18:56 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: conservativeharleyguy

The term “meteor” properly refers to any atmospheric phenomenon, such as a cloud, or lightning. The term gained its modern meaning because the nature and cause of meteors ( in the modern astronomical sense ) were not understood, and the generic term implied no judgement of the question.

When the question was finally settled in the late 1700’s it was too late to abandon the usage, and it eclipsed the generic meaning. It is still considered proper, though, to use meteoroid and meteorite to refer to the object itself, and meteor in the general sense of the phenomenon considered as an apparition.


88 posted on 02/03/2010 3:16:36 PM PST by dr_lew
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