Meteoroid

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"Bogey One pitching back positive. Dodging the meteoroid; heading back toward the breachers."
―Biclian reporting[1]

A meteoroid was an astronomical object. The Nightdragon man-of-war Vigilant once encountered a smaller meteoroid, but caught it in a tractor beam and sent it arrowing toward an enemy patrol cruiser instead.[1]

Behind the scenes

In real life, a meteoroid is a lump of rock or iron that orbits around the sun.[2] If it enters Earth's, or another planet's atmosphere but burns up before it reaches the ground,[3] the streak of light that appears in the sky called a meteor.[4] A meteorite, on the other hand, is a meteoroid that enters the planet's atmosphere and survives the trip and hits the ground.[3] Meteoroids range in size from tiny dust grains to about 330 feet (100 meters); space debris any bigger than this is considered an asteroid.[5]

Appearances

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil
  2. ↑ Premium-Era-real Meteoroid on National Geographic: "Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun, just as planets, asteroids, and comets do." (backup link archived on May 19, 2023)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Premium-Era-real What's the difference between a meteor, meteoroid, and meteorite? on NASA: "Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as "space rocks." When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or "shooting stars" are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's called a meteorite." (backup link archived on April 23, 2023)
  4. ↑ Premium-Era-real What's the Difference Between a Meteoroid, a Meteor, and a Meteorite? by Gregersen, Erik on Encyclopædia Britannica: "A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the sky when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of the frictional heating from the piece's collision with the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere, it floats through interplanetary space and is called a meteoroid." (backup link archived on May 23, 2023)
  5. ↑ Premium-Era-real How big does a meteor have to be to make it to the ground? on HowStuffWorks: "Meteoroids have a pretty big size range. They include any space debris bigger than a molecule and smaller than about 330 feet (100 meters) -- space debris bigger than this is considered an asteroid." (backup link archived on March 25, 2023)