How to Use meteoroid in a Sentence

meteoroid

noun
  • In these streams, even the largest meteoroids—the technical term for the solid bits of rock—tend to be small, only about the size of a grain of sand.
    Phil Plait, Scientific American, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The light's green hue is likely due to the magnesium contained in the meteoroid.
    Miriam Fauzia, USA TODAY, 14 July 2021
  • Sure, the James Webb being struck by a meteoroid isn’t ideal.
    Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 9 June 2022
  • Cooke estimated the meteoroid was about 1 to 2 yards across and weighed more than a metric ton.
    Lisa Gutierrez, kansascity, 17 Jan. 2018
  • Astronomers then confirmed the meteoroid was poised to hit Earth in France in the early morning local time.
    PCMAG, 13 Feb. 2023
  • This means the meteoroid (the solid part ramming through our atmosphere) was of a decent size (like a beachball, maybe?
    Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2012
  • Too small to be called planets, asteroids are rocky chunks that also orbit our sun along with the space rocks known as meteoroids.
    National Geographic, 27 Mar. 2019
  • Scientists think the meteoroid may have measured 16 to 39 feet.
    Saleen Martin, USA TODAY, 28 Oct. 2022
  • When the meteoroids hit the surface at those shallow angles, some of each meteoroid would shear itself off and move down range from the impact site.
    Liz Kruesi, Discover Magazine, 1 Apr. 2017
  • Hundreds of millions of meteoroids, many of them the size of sand grains, enter Earth’s atmosphere every day.
    Barry Lopez, Harper's magazine, 10 Jan. 2019
  • The July 2017 event is known as a grazing fireball, a rare type of meteoroid that hits Earth’s atmosphere at a low angle, then skims like a skipping stone on a lake.
    Joshua Sokol, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Tiny meteoroids are likely to blame for these Martian metals.
    Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 13 Apr. 2017
  • Tiny meteoroids are likely to blame for these Martian metals.
    Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 13 Apr. 2017
  • The meteoroids slam into the atmosphere at high speeds and vaporize.
    Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 13 Apr. 2017
  • The meteoroids slam into the atmosphere at high speeds and vaporize.
    Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 13 Apr. 2017
  • Even a tiny meteor that burned up in our atmosphere sent an alarming meteoroid arcing across the Michigan sky a few days ago.
    Avi Selk, Washington Post, 21 Jan. 2018
  • Not long after this, the meteoroid broke apart, raining down small meteorites onto the ground which were later found spread over the countryside .
    Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2012
  • Meteors begin to ramp up several days before the peak, which means folks who want to wake up early to lie on a blanket or lawn chair to look up could see 25 to 50 meteoroids per hour.
    Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Other remnants of the meteoroid's impact landed 23 miles away.
    Saleen Martin, USA TODAY, 28 Oct. 2022
  • If an asteroid or meteoroid does not burn up before impact, it is called a meteorite.
    Julia Musto, Fox News, 9 Mar. 2021
  • The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter then flew over the site to confirm where the meteoroid landed, spotting three darkened areas.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN, 19 Sep. 2022
  • And the stream of meteoroids only intersects Earth's orbit sometimes, which is what makes this potential outburst so rare.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Nov. 2019
  • Once these analyses are complete, scientists will know if any material from the meteoroid made it to the ground before burning up in the atmosphere.
    Abigail Beck, The Arizona Republic, 17 Apr. 2024
  • Most of the heating is due to the meteoroid's hypersonic passage through air, which compresses the gas, heating it up violently.
    Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 2 Oct. 2011
  • The meteoroid was about two feet in diameter, NASA estimates.
    Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 21 Feb. 2023
  • Fortunately, the object was only about 1 meter (3.3 feet) in size, resulting in the meteoroid burning up in the atmosphere.
    PCMAG, 13 Feb. 2023
  • But no one could tell whether the gas was a byproduct of microbial life, the result of geological reactions or a side effect of meteoroids and cosmic dust raining down on the planet.
    Robert Lee Hotz, WSJ, 7 June 2018
  • What’s the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite?
    Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Asteroids are larger than 3.2 feet in diameter, while anything smaller would be a meteoroid and could from a comet or asteroid.
    Kimberly Miller, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2021
  • Noctilucent clouds form around the poles in the summer months, when ice crystallizes around shards of disintegrating meteoroids, volcanic dust, and even rocket plumes 50 miles above the surface, according to NASA.
    Rachel Becker, The Verge, 6 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'meteoroid.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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