SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – What’s the difference between a meteor, meteoroid and meteorite?
Encyclopedia Britannica outlines the differences clearly:
A meteor, like the one seen over Utah on Saturday, is classified as “the streak of light” that you see in the sky when “a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material” enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up.
The material typically burns up because of frictional heating from the material’s collision with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.
This is most commonly what occurs. However, when that small bit of comet or asteroid does not completely burn up, and instead makes it to the Earth’s surface, the material that survived the journey is called a meteorite.
Inversely, that same material is called a meteoroid when it has not yet entered Earth’s atmosphere, and is still travelling through interplanetary space.
So, the body of a comet or asteroid “starts its life as a meteoroid,” then makes its fiery streak of light in the atmosphere as a meteor, and if it isn’t destroyed in the process, reaches Earth’s surface as a meteorite!
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BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, UT – AUGUST 12: A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above Inspiration Point early on August 12, 2016 in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. The annual display, known as the Perseid shower because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, is a result of Earth’s orbit passing through debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) -
A mosaic image of asteroid Eros at it’s north pole, taken by the robotic NEAR Shoemaker space probe February 14, 2000 immediately after the spacecraft’s insertion into orbit. After a year of circling and taking pictures, NEAR will touch down on asteroid Eros February 12, 2001, to capture surface details, which will be the first time any craft has tried to land on a tumbling space rock. (Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers) -
The Comet NEOWISE or C/2020 F3, with its two tails visible, is seen in the sky above Goldfield, Nevada on July 18, 2020. – The Comet C/2020 F3 was discovered March 27, 2020, by NEOWISE, the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a space telescope launched by NASA in 2009. (Photo by David Becker / AFP) (Photo by DAVID BECKER/AFP via Getty Images) -
A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above a camping site at the Negev desert near the city of Mitzpe Ramon on August 11, 2020 during the Perseids meteor shower, which occurs every year when the Earth passes through the cloud of debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images) -
Halley’s Comet photographed by the Soviet Probe “Vega” in 1986. (Photo by Liaison) -
This picture taken on April 7, 2021, in Brest, western France, shows a fragment of the meteorite Erg Chech 002. – Scientists believe they have identified a meteorite formed in the first million years of our solar system, making it the oldest known meteor of volcanic origin. The space rock, which began its journey some 4.5 billion years ago, has already proved an “exceptional” witness to the building blocks of the planets. Known as Erg Chech 002, the meteorite was discovered in May 2020 by meteor hunters in the Algerian Sahara desert. It had rested undisturbed for “at least 100 years”, according to a geochemist at France’s Brest University. (Photo by Fred TANNEAU / AFP) (Photo by FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images) -
French meteorite hunter Gerard Merrier shows several pieces of Mars meteorite on February 5, 2019 in Tours, central France before he sells his collection at auction on February 28, 2019 in Vendôme. – Gerard Merlier has stride along the deserts in search of meteorites. He decided to plan an auction for his precious collection of meteorites in order to ensure his retirement. (Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP) (Photo credit should read GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP via Getty Images) -
A multiple exposure picture taken in the early hours of August 12, 2014 shows a Perseids meteor shower in the night sky from the mountains of the Sierra Norte de Madrid near the municipality of Valle del Lozoya. The perseid meteor shower occurs every year in August when the Earth passes through the debris and dust of the Swift-Tuttle comet. AFP PHOTO / DANI POZO (Photo by DANI POZO / AFP) (Photo by DANI POZO/AFP via Getty Images) -
HOLMES CHAPEL, UNITED KINGDOM – AUGUST 13: A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky over the Lovell Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank on August 13, 2013 in Holmes Chapel, United Kingdom.The annual display, known as the Perseid shower because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, is a result of Earth’s orbit passing through debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) -
SPRING MOUNTAINS NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, NV – AUGUST 13: A pair of Perseid meteors streak across the sky above desert pine trees on August 13, 2015 in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Nevada. The annual display, known as the Perseid shower because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the northeastern sky, is a result of Earth’s orbit passing through debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Diving a little deeper, NASA clarifies the difference between asteroids and comets:
While they’re both planetary objects orbiting the Sun, an asteroid is a “small, rocky object,” which is typically found in a ring between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt.
“Some asteroids are round, some are elongated, and some even have a satellite,” NASA states.
When seen in a telescope, an asteroid appears as a point of light.
A comet, however, is composed of ice and dust, and when a comet gets close to the Sun, its ice and dust content starts to vaporize.
“When seen in a telescope, a comet appears fuzzy and/or has a tail,” NASA states.
NASA summarizes the distinctions as such: “Asteroids are rocky, comets are icy, and meteors are much smaller and are the shooting stars that you see up in the sky.”
See below for footage of a meteor over Utah’s very own Snowbasin Resort:
