noun

• A small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth's atmosphere.

  ‘The term ‘space debris’ in its largest sense includes all naturally occurring remains of solar and planetary processes: interplanetary dust, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Once the meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere, they are known as meteors and become visible due to the friction caused by air molecules slamming against the surface of the high-velocity particle.’
  • ‘It is probably natural to think of meteorites - as the meteoroids that fall to Earth are called - as threatening, even dangerous, phenomena.’
  • ‘Whether a meteoroid makes it to Earth's surface or not depends on many factors including the mass, initial velocity, angle of entry, composition, and shape of the body.’
  • ‘However, from time to time, comets suddenly get brighter, and one possible explanation for this is that the comet has struck a small meteoroid in space; perhaps a small lump of rock, 10 cm or a metre in size.’