DOUG'S WORD OF THE WEEK

Bolide / boh-lahyd, -lid / noun: 1. an exceptionally bright meteor. 2. Any extraterrestrial body that collides with Earth. 3. A fireball

Notes & Etymology: From the Greek βολίς (bolis) which can mean a missile or to flash. The bolide term is generally used more often among geologists than astronomers where it means a very large impactor. For example, the USGS uses the term to mean a generic large crater-forming projectile. Astronomers tend to use the term to mean an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes (sometimes called a detonating fireball).
Usage: “The smallest impactor that can penetrate the atmosphere deep enough to cause any damage on the ground is not much smaller than the "Tunguska" bolide that flattened a couple thousand square miles of Siberian forest in 1908. "
Alan Harris, senior research scientist for the Space Science Institute