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Weather Blogs / Astronomy

What's in a Name? Asteroid, Meteor, Meteorite, Meteoroid

By travel

Published May 23, 2013 9:03 AM EDT | Updated May 23, 2013 10:30 AM EDT

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A couple of month's ago we watched Russia's fireball situation in part fascination and part horror. Since then, we have been asked a lot of questions about what that was and why NASA did not warn us? Well, let's get into a couple of terms and see if we can make some sense of this.

Simply put, an asteroid is a large chunk of rock in space. In our solar system, most of asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. NASA can and does track asteroids that may interact with the Earth.

A meteoroid is smaller than an asteroid. What entered Russia's atmosphere a few months back was a meteoroid that developed into a fireball that was not tracked by NASA. Meteoroids are scattered throughout the solar system. More on fireballs below.

Once a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, the light it produces is a meteor (often called "shooting star"). Most meteoroids that enter our atmosphere will burn up before they ever approach the ground. If the meteoroid does in fact hit the ground, it is now known as a meteorite, no matter how big it is.

Lastly, what is a fireball? In easy terms, it is a very bright meteor, brighter than any planet. It is still a meteoroid though and if it hits the ground it is still a meteorite. The fireball in Russia entered our atmosphere about 50 feet in diameter and weighed about 7,000 tons. As it burned through our atmosphere, it became smaller and lighter.

You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where discussions on any astronomy subject, when you join AccuWeather's Astronomy Facebook Fanpage by clicking here. We are now approaching 25,000 likes. Tell your friends about this site and blog and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative conversation will be allowed.

The experts on this Facebook page will keep you up to date on any astronomy-related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions.

And please keep the astronomy pictures coming. They have been simply amazing. Ask questions, share comments, share anything.

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