METEOROID

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meteoroid mean? 

• METEOROID (noun)
  The noun METEOROID has 1 sense:

1. (astronomy) any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere

  Familiarity information: METEOROID used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• METEOROID (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(astronomy) any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

meteor; meteoroid

Hypernyms ("meteoroid" is a kind of...):

estraterrestrial body; extraterrestrial object (a natural object existing outside the earth and outside the earth's atmosphere)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meteoroid"):

meteorite (stony or metallic object that is the remains of a meteoroid that has reached the earth's surface)

meteor swarm (a group of meteoroids with similar paths)

 Context examples 

To release water, the meteoroids had to penetrate at least 3 inches (8 centimeters) below the surface.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

These craters form when meteoroids or comets impact the surface.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

If thermal fracturing, meteoroid impacts or both are in fact the causes of these ejection events, then this phenomenon is likely happening on all small asteroids, as they all experience these mechanisms.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

When asteroids collide with meteoroids or other asteroids, pieces break off and some of them eventually make their way to Earth as meteorites.

(Vitamin B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by meteorites, NASA)

Meteoroid strikes can transport water both into and out of cold traps.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

The team investigated a wide variety of possible mechanisms that may have caused the ejection events and narrowed the list to three candidates: meteoroid impacts, thermal stress fracturing and released water vapor.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

Models had predicted that meteoroid impacts could release water from the Moon as a vapor, but scientists hadn’t yet observed the phenomenon.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

Meteoroid impacts are common in the deep space neighborhood of Bennu, and it is possible that these small fragments of space rock could be hitting Bennu where OSIRIS-REx is not observing it, shaking loose particles with the momentum of their impact.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

Because the material on the lunar surface is fluffy, even a meteoroid that’s a fraction of an inch (5 millimeters) across can penetrate far enough to release a puff of vapor.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

But when the Moon passed through one of these meteoroid streams, enough vapor was ejected for us to detect it.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)