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Re: (meteorobs) RE: Bolide Definition again :-)
I've used the word but didn't know the actual dictionary definition.
The query prompted me to look it up on an online dictionary and this was
the only definition I could find, at this website:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/glossary/indexb.shtml
BOLIDE
A bolide is a meteor,
asteroid, or comet that hits
the Earth (or other planet
or moon) and explodes.
Another source, 'Meteor Science and Engineering'
Page 1, 1-1 What is a meteor?
".... The word meteor now refers to the streak of light or "shooting
star" that is seen in the night sky when a small object, known as a
meteoroid, enters the earth's atmosphere at high speed and dissipates
its energy and substance in a brief blaze. If the event is
spectacularyly brilliant the term fireball may be used, and if the
object appears to explode it is called a detonating fireball or bolide.
..."
from the same book on page 158 (remember this book was published in
1961).
".... Meteorite-dropping bolides occur so rarely that to date only one
specimen (which had an elliptical orbit) appears to have been
photographed (Ceplecha, Rajchl, and Schnal, 1959). ..."
Even my astronomy text didn't list bolide in the dictionary in the back,
neither did I find anything in my latest edition of the Royal
Astronomical Society's - The Observers Handbook. It doesn't seem to be
that popular a word.
Ron (in Gander)
--
R & L Thompson, 9 Medcalf St., Gander, NF, Canada A1V 1R9
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