Meteor, Meteorite, Asteroid: What's the Difference? by AMNH on
News reports and YouTube videos of a meteor breaking up in the
Siberian sky are pouring in. Tonight, another space
rock—asteroid 2012 DA14—will fly by Earth more closely than any
asteroid whose orbit astrophysicists have calculated beforehand.
What's the difference between a meteor, a meteorite, and an
asteroid? In the Museum's Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites,
curated by Denton S. Ebel, chair of the Division of Physical
Sciences (Earth and Planetary Sciences), the differences are
clearly explained. There, you can also see large fragments of
the Cape York meteorite, including a 34-ton section known as
Ahnighito. The text below is adapted from the writing in the
hall. WHAT IS A METEOR? Meteors are not meteorites. Like
meteorites, meteors are objects that enter Earth’s atmosphere
from space. But meteors—which are typically pieces of comet dust
no larger than a grain of rice—burn up before reaching the
ground. As they vaporize, they leave behind the fi