Meteoroidid

Meteoroidid is not a widely used term in scientific literature, and the phrase may reflect a misspelling or confusion with meteoroid or meteorid. This article uses meteoroid and related terms in their standard sense to describe small bodies in the Solar System.

A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic object traveling through space, typically ranging from tiny grains to objects up to about a meter in size. Most originate from collisions between asteroids, debris shed by comets, or fragments left over from planetary formation. Meteoroids orbit the Sun and can cross paths with Earth, Mars, or other planets, sometimes producing meteor showers when Earth passes through streams of debris.

When a meteoroid enters a planet’s atmosphere, it encounters intense friction and rapidly heats up, producing a bright streak known as a meteor or shooting star. Most meteoroids vaporize completely before reaching the surface. If a fragment survives atmospheric entry and lands on the surface, it is called a meteorite. The distinction among meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite marks the object’s location relative to space, the atmosphere, and the surface.

Meteoroids are classified by composition into stony, iron, and stony-iron types. They also vary by size, with micrometeoroids measuring micrometers to millimeters and larger bodies extending up to meters in diameter. Observations come from ground-based telescopes, radar detections of meteors, and space missions that study dust and small bodies.

Meteoric material provides insights into the early Solar System and the history of planetary formation, while larger meteoroids pose occasional impact risks, though such events are rare.

See also: meteor, meteorite, meteor shower, meteoroid stream, asteroid, comet.