Asteroid 2014 AA: Harmless impact over Atlantic Ocean last night

slate.com

16 points·mrfusion··12 comments

From what I can tell from the text of the article, what happened was 2014 AA impacted the atmosphere and burned up on entry, but did not hit land or water.

I bring this up because from what I can gather "impact" to astronomers means "hits the atmosphere" while "impact" to a lay person means "hits ground or water".

True, but meteors that burn up on entry can still cause damage -- see the Chelyabinsk meteor last year. It exploded in the atmosphere but still shattered windows and damaged thousands of buildings in the nearby town. Few would have survived if it had happened directly over the town.

Or the Tunguska impact of 1908.

Only 2-4 meters wide, and falling into the ocean without (known yet) consequences. But was found practically when it hit us, if it were going to a city it would had no warning, and probably lots of victims.

From what I understood this is a meteor, which means it burned up in atmosphere. Meanwhile, meteorite is an achievement awarded a space rock that actually hits the ground/water.

"It is virtually certain"

so hum its not certain,i guess. people need to learn how to write stuff that makes sense.

How is this different from meteors (shooting stars)? size?

Word choice, nothing more.

Asteroids that enter Earth's atmosphere become meteors, meteor fragments that land on the surface become meteorites.

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