Meteoroid
A Meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body moving in space.
- It is an astronomical object.
- They are also commonly, though erroneously, referred to as Meteorites.
Description (Specifications)
A meteoroid is a small body moving within a star system that would become a meteor if it entered a planetary atmosphere. Meteoroids are significantly smaller than planetoids, ranging in size from small grains to meter-wide objects. Objects smaller than this are classified as micrometeoroids or space dust.
- A star system typically contains multiple millions of meteoroids.
- Most meteoroids have very high velocities relative to other bodies within the system.
History & Background (Dossier)
Most meteoroids are fragments from comets or asteroids, while others are collision impact debris ejected from planets. Most are composed of nickel-iron or stone, or are stony-iron in nature. Meteoroids have many different orbits, some clustering in streams of debris and often associated with a parent comet, while others are sporadic.
When a meteoroid enters a planetary atmosphere, aerodynamic heating of that object produces a streak of light, both from the glowing object and the trail of glowing particles that it leaves in its wake. This phenomenon is called a meteor. If it survives its passage through the atmosphere and impacts with the ground, it is then called a meteorite.
- Meteoroids may present a significant danger, particularly to spacecraft and orbital facilities, and to surface facilities on worlds with atmospheres rated as vacuum, trace or very thin. The thicker a world's atmosphere, the greater the chance that it will ablate away the meteoroid before it reaches the surface.
References & Contributors (Sources)
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- Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science