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meteorite

/ˌmidiəˈraɪt/
/ˈmitiəraɪt/
IPA guide

Other forms: meteorites

A meteorite is a rock that falls to earth after a brilliant meteor has passed through the earth's atmosphere.

If you've ever seen a shooting star at night, you can call what you're watching zip brightly across the sky a meteor. If that same meteor makes it through the atmosphere of the earth, its fire burns out and it becomes a meteorite, or a random piece of space debris that may have originally come from an asteroid or comet. The Greek root for both meteor and meteorite is ta meteora, "things in heaven above."

Definitions of meteorite
  1. noun
    any piece of a solid space object that entered Earth's atmosphere and landed on Earth's surface
    see moresee less
    types:
    aerolite
    a stony meteorite consisting of silicate minerals
    micrometeor, micrometeorite, micrometeoroid
    a meteorite or meteoroid so small that it drifts down to earth without becoming intensely heated in the atmosphere
    pallasite
    a meteorite composed principally of olivine and metallic iron
    siderite
    a meteorite consisting principally of nickel and iron
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