what's the difference between a meteor, metoerite, and an asteriod?

Question

what's the difference between a meteor, metoerite, and an asteriod?

Answer 1

A meteor is a hunk of rock that enters the atmosphere but is burned up before it hits the ground.

A meterorite is a hunk of rock that manages to hit the ground (so it clearly went through the atmosphere).

An asteroid is a hunk of rock that is in orbit around the sun. There are other technical requirements (where the orbit is, composition, etc), but that is the essence.

Answer 2

Originally, a meteor was any event that went on in the Earth's (upper) atmosphere. That is why the science/art of predicting weather is called meteorology (literally: "understanding what goes on in the atmosphere").

In astronomy, it means the streak of light caused by a piece of whatever that enters the atmosphere (not the piece but the streak of light itself).

Before hitting the atmosphere, the tiny object is called a meteoroid.

An asteroid is a bigger chunk (also called a minor planet) that appears as a star in a telescope (i.e., it is still a dot even at high magnification) and has an orbit inside that of Jupiter.

A planetoid is anything that is in orbit around the Sun, including asteroids, minor planets, dwarf planets, Trans-Neptunian Objects... but not one of the 8 planets.

Strangely enough, comets (about the size of small asteroids) are not included. The word comet refers to the object itself and to the entire event (the coma and the tails). The Chinese knew them as Broom Stars.

Satellites are things that are gravitaionally bound to a planet or planetoid.

A meteorite is a meteroid (or part thereof) that reaches the ground. Actually, in order to survive long enough to reach the ground, it must have been bigger than a meteoroid before hitting the atmosphere, but we still call it a meteorite.

When things this big cause a meteor, it usually lasts more than a few seconds and gets really bright. The meteor is then called a bolide (the name applies to the light event and to the body that causes it).

Answer 3

A meteor is a meteorological phenomenon. Such as a lithometeor or electrometeor.

A meteorite is a rock from space which penetrates an atmosphere to the surface.

An asteroid is a rocky body in the solar system; it is smaller than a planet, and not orbiting a planet. It can be mistaken for a star ("aster"), but isn't ("oid").

Answer 4

A meteoroid is a small sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar system.

A meteor is nothing but a meteoroid itself but when it enters earth’s atmosphere it starts burning. That is why it is called a shooting star or falling star. Sometimes the path of the burning meteoroid in the earth’s atmosphere is also called as meteor. Means by some definition meteor is nothing but the path of a burning meteoroid coming towards earth. Meteor shower is nothing but many meteors falling towards earth.

A meteor as falls towards earth will always burn because of the velocity/ friction against earth’s atmosphere.

However on Moon etc if a meteoroid falls to moon then it will not burn as there is no atmosphere. If somebody watches the sky from the surface of moon and if a meteoroid or number of meteoroids fall to the moon then – the observers may not call them as meteor, meteors or meteor shower. This is because meteor basically means a burning meteoroid as it reaches a sky body like earth having atmosphere which makes the meteoroid burn and look like a falling or shooting star.

A meteorite is a portion of a meteoroid or asteroid that survives its passage through the atmosphere and impact with the ground without being destroyed. It is nothing but residual meteoroid or asteroid which reach the earth’s surface.

An asteroid is larger than meteoroids. They could be of several miles in size. They range in size from several meters to several miles. They are in general not larger than 500 miles. Such big asteroids are called as minor planets although they are much much smaller than satellites like moon.

Simply defining – asteroid, meteoroid, meteor, meteorite are all celestial bodies - depending upon their size and location - for example entering the atmosphere of earth, reaching earth's surface etc. A meteoroid is called a meteor only when it enters earth’s atmosphere and catches fire. A meteorite is by definition the residual of a meteor or remaining portion which reaches after burning in the atmosphere. Most of the meteors do not produce meteorites as they burn completely. However larger meteors may not burn completely so reach on to earth’s surface.

When these meteorites are large they produce craters.

Answer 5

A meteor is an infalling object. (Most burn up).
A Meteorite is a remnant of a meteor that has
reached the ground.
An Asteroid is a small body of considerable size,
in circum-stellar orbit.

Answer 6

Meteor(small)/Asteroid(big) are celestial objects. Meteorite is remnant of Meteor on earth.

Answer 7

their relation in distance from the earth's atmosphere