METEORITE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meteorite mean? 

• METEORITE (noun)
  The noun METEORITE has 1 sense:

1. stony or metallic object that is the remains of a meteoroid that has reached the earth's surface

  Familiarity information: METEORITE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• METEORITE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stony or metallic object that is the remains of a meteoroid that has reached the earth's surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("meteorite" is a kind of...):

meteor; meteoroid ((astronomy) any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meteorite"):

aerolite (a stony meteorite consisting of silicate minerals)

micrometeor; micrometeorite; micrometeoroid (a meteorite or meteoroid so small that it drifts down to earth without becoming intensely heated in the atmosphere)

pallasite (a meteorite composed principally of olivine and metallic iron)

siderite (a meteorite consisting principally of nickel and iron)

Derivation:

meteoritic; meteoritical (of or relating to or caused by meteorites)

 Context examples 

However, he believes the more likely scenario is that life would have been brought in by a meteorite.

(Life Could Exist on Moon 4 Billion Years Ago, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Stardust grains are found in some types of meteorites, which have preserved them since the birth of our solar system.

(Saturn Spacecraft Samples Interstellar Dust, NASA)

Laser-zapping of a globular, golf-ball-size object on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover confirms that it is an iron-nickel meteorite fallen from the Red Planet's sky.

(Curiosity Mars Rover Checks Odd-looking Iron Meteorite, NASA)

Instead, the team thinks the nitrates are ancient, and likely came from non-biological processes like meteorite impacts and lightning in Mars' distant past.

(Curiosity Rover Finds Biologically Useful Nitrogen on Mars, NASA)

Many Martian meteorites found on Earth seem to come from a period of about 150 million to 586 million years ago, and most are likely from the same region of Mars.

(New Evidence for A Water-Rich History on Mars, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The researchers said that some of the phosphorus-bearing minerals such as those in meteorites that came to Earth may have been reactive enough to contribute to the making of proto-biomolecules.

(Finding Alien Life Unlikely Due to Lack of Phosphorus in Universe, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Small amounts of vaterite crystals have been found in some sea and freshwater crustaceans, bird eggs, the inner ears of salmon, meteorites and rocks.

(Rare mineral discovered in plants for first time, University of Cambridge)

This happens because impacts excavate lunar boulders that are ground into soil over tens to hundreds of millions of years by a constant rain of tiny meteorites.

(Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth’s Asteroid Impact History, NASA)

NASA and an international team of planetary scientists have found evidence in meteorites on Earth that indicates Mars has a distinct and global reservoir of water or ice near its surface.

(New Evidence for a Mars Water Reservoir, NASA)

The extraterrestrial compounds found in meteorites resemble the active site of hydrogenases, which are enzymes that provide energy to bacteria and archaea by breaking down hydrogen gas (H2).

(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, NASA)