Library / English Dictionary

METEOROID

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

meteor; meteoroid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

When a stream of meteoroids rains down on the lunar surface, the liberated water will enter the exosphere and spread through it.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

Researchers from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, report that streams of meteoroids striking the Moon infuse the thin lunar atmosphere with a short-lived water vapor.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)