A meteor is a bright light seen when a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, usually from an asteroid. The heat produced by piston pressure causes the light. Meteoroids can come from comets, the Moon, or Mars, and if they survive the fall to Earth, they are called meteorites. Most meteoroids are too small to be seen or reach the Earth’s surface. Fireballs or bolides are extremely bright meteors, but they are rare.
A meteor is the streak of bright light that can be seen from Earth when an object enters the atmosphere. The actual object entering the atmosphere is called a meteoroid and is usually a piece of an asteroid. The term meteor refers only to the image created by this rumor – a bright light falling from the sky – often referred to as a shooting star.
The bright light from a meteor is the result of the heat produced by the meteoroid entering the atmosphere. Rather than friction, this heat is produced by piston pressure: the pressure exerted on a body moving through a fluid medium. This pressure heats the meteoroid and the surrounding air to such an extent that the meteorite’s image can be seen from the ground.
While meteoroids are often referred to as meteors or meteor rocks, this usage is not technically correct. Although most meteoroids come from asteroids, it has been speculated that some may come from comets and others possibly from the Moon or Mars. When a meteoroid survives its fall to earth, it is called a meteorite. Meteorites discovered on Earth are often classified as a fall or find. A fall is a meteorite discovered after someone witnesses it fall to the ground, while a find is a meteorite that was not witnessed.
On any given night, up to one meteoroid can be seen per hour, and during a meteor shower, this rate can increase to a hundred per hour. Although many meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, most are too small to produce a visible image or reach the Earth’s surface. Although meteoroids enter the atmosphere at incredibly high speeds, exceeding 40 miles (70 km) per second, they usually slow down to just a couple hundred miles per hour and reach the Earth’s surface with minimal impact. Extremely bright meteors can be called fireballs or bolides. While there are differing regulations as to what degree of brightness constitutes a fireball, it is clear that they are an impressive sight, but a rare one to see.
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