bolide
BOH-lide
An extremely bright meteor — a fireball — that explodes or fragments as it passes through the atmosphere. Bolides are brighter than any planet, often leave persistent smoke trails, and can produce audible sonic booms. The Chelyabinsk event of 2013, which shattered windows across a Russian city, was a bolide. The word names the rare moment when the sky delivers a rock and the atmosphere fights back.
Etymology
Greek bolis, bolidos, a missile, a thrown object, from ballein, to throw. Something thrown — at us, from space.
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