Sky Reporter 
teor, and an exceptionally brilliant me- 
teor, corresponding to a large mete- 
oroid, is called a fireball. These terms 
are loosely used; a scientist will often 
write “meteor” or “meteorite” when 
“meteoroid” is actually meant. 
The event in August 1972 was un- 
questionably a fireball, since even in 
broad daylight it was a spectacular 
sight. It also qualified as a bolide, 
or a fireball accompanied by sonic 
booms. 
When a meteoroid encounters the 
lower layers of the earth’s atmosphere, 
it is slowed by air resistance, while 
friction heats it, melting away some 
surface material. In the process, most 
meteoroids are reduced to dust or to 
small fragments. Among the un- 
counted millions of meteoroids out in 
space, there must be many that have 
grazed the uppermost layers of the 
atmosphere and then continued on 
their journeys. Nothing is known of 
such encounters, however, since they 
are not detectable from the ground. 
Meteoroids are just small asteroids, 
and indeed the practical distinction 
is that asteroids can be viewed through 
telescopes, while meteoroids are too 
small to be seen except when they 
flash through the lower atmosphere. 
As a result, astronomers keep track 
of a few thousand asteroids, but have 
no specific knowledge of any of the 
immense number of meteoroids that 
exist in the solar system. (The streams 
of comet dust that produce “meteor 
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