bolide

File:Explosion du bolide de quenngouck.png

The word bolide ({{IPAc-en|'|b|oʊ|l|aɪ|d}}; from Italian via Latin, {{etymology|grc|{{wikt-lang|grc|βολίς}} ({{grc-transl|βολίς}})|missile}}{{cite Merriam-Webster|bolide}}{{OED|bolide}}) may refer to somewhat different phenomena depending on the context in which the word appears, and readers may need to make inferences to determine which meaning is intended in a particular publication.{{cite web |last1=Sutter |first1=Paul M. |title=Astronomy Jargon 101: Bolide |url=https://www.universetoday.com/153967/astronomy-jargon-101-bolide/ |website=Universe Today |date=16 January 2022}} An early usage occurs in Natural History, where Pliny the Elder describes two types of prodigies, "those which are called lampades and those which are called bolides".{{cite book |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS. |chapter=CHAP. 25.—EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY OF CELESTIAL PRODIGIES; FACES, LAMPADES, AND BOLIDES |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D2&force=y}} At least one of the prodigies described by Pliny (a "spark" that fell, grew to the "size of the moon", and "returned into the heavens"{{cite book |quote=We have an account of a spark falling from a star, and increasing as it approached the earth, until it became of the size of the moon, shining as through a cloud; it afterwards returned into the heavens and was converted into a lampas; this occurred in the consulship of Cn. Octavius and C. Scri- bonius. It was seen by Silanus, the proconsul, and his attendants. |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK II |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D2&force=y}}) has been interpreted by astronomers as a bolide in the modern sense.{{cite book |last1=Kronk |first1=Gary W. |title=Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799: A Catalog of Comets |date=28 September 1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-58504-0 |pages=515 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cometography_Volume_1_Ancient_1799/Umxbb68tmZMC |language=en}} His description of an object coming near the earth and continuing back into the sky matches the expected trajectory of a fireball crossing above an observer.{{cite journal |title=The Roman fireball of 76 BC |last=Stothers |first=Richard B. |journal=The Observatory |volume=107 |pages=211–213 |date=1987 |bibcode=1987Obs...107..211S |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1987Obs...107..211S |access-date=4 June 2023 |archive-date=15 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220915022601/https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1987Obs...107..211S |url-status=live}} A 1771 fireball that burst above Melun, France, was widely discussed by contemporary astronomers as a "bolide" and was the subject of an official French Academy of Sciences investigation led by Jean-Baptiste Le Roy.{{cite journal |last1=Marvin |first1=M. D. |title=Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756-1827) and the origins of modern meteorite research |journal=Meteoritics & Planetary Science |date=1996 |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=545-588. |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1996M%26PS...31..545M}} In 1794, Ernst Chladni published a book proposing that meteors were small objects that fell to Earth from space and that small bodies existed in space beyond the moon. Though initially ridiculed, Chladni's book became the starting point for the modern field of meteoritics.{{Cite journal|last=Marvin|first=Ursula B.|date=1996|title=Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756–1827) and the origins of modern meteorite research|journal=Meteoritics & Planetary Science|language=en|volume=31|issue=5|pages=545–588|doi=10.1111/j.1945-5100.1996.tb02031.x|bibcode=1996M&PS...31..545M|s2cid=210038676 |issn=1945-5100}}

Astronomers use the word to describe any extremely bright meteor (or fireball), especially one that explodes in the atmosphere. Some astronomical definition specify an apparent magnitude of −4 or brighter.

{{Cite book

|last= Belton

|first= MJS

|title= Mitigation of hazardous comets and asteroids

|publisher= Cambridge University Press

|date= 2004

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Dw0A7T0fy6AC

|isbn= 0521827647

}}{{rp|156}} A superbolide reaches an apparent magnitude of −17 or brighter,

{{Cite book

|last= Adushkin

|first= Vitaly

|author2= Ivan Nemchinov

|title= Catastrophic events caused by cosmic objects

|publisher= Springer

|date= 2008

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3Hd8Lw1hExUC

|isbn= 978-1402064524

}}{{rp|133}}

which is roughly 100 times brighter than the full moon. Recent examples of superbolides include the Sutter's Mill meteorite in California and the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia.

Geologists use the word to describe a very large impact event. The geological definition covers any generic large crater-forming impacting body whose composition (for example, whether it is a rocky or metallic asteroid, or an icy comet) is unknown.

{{cite web

|url= https://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/epubs/bolide/introduction.html

|title= Introduction: What is a Bolide?

|publisher= Woodshole.er.usgs.gov

|date= 1 April 1998 |access-date= 16 September 2011

}}

{{see also|Meteoroid#Fireball}}

File:Meteoroid - Meteor (Bolide) - Meteorite.gif and air burst]]

The IAU has no official definition of "bolide", and generally considers the term synonymous with fireball, a brighter-than-usual meteor; however, the term generally applies to fireballs reaching an apparent magnitude −4 or brighter. Astronomers tend to use bolide to identify an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes (sometimes called a detonating fireball).{{cite book |url= https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191851193.001.0001/acref-9780191851193-e-487 |title=A Dictionary of Astronomy |chapter=Bolide |edition=3 |year=2018 |at=bolide |editor1=Ian Ridpath |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0191851193}} It may also be used to mean a fireball that is audible.

{{see also|Meteor air burst}}

Selected superbolide air bursts:

• Tunguska event (Russia, 1908)
• 2009 Sulawesi superbolide (Indonesia, 2009)
• Chelyabinsk meteor (Russia, 2013)

Geologists use the term bolide differently from astronomers. In geology, it indicates a very large impactor. For example, the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center of the USGS uses bolide for any large crater-forming impacting body whose origin and composition is unknown, as, for example, whether it was a stony or metallic asteroid, or a less dense, icy comet made of volatiles, such as water, ammonia, and methane.

The most notable example is the bolide that caused the Chicxulub crater 66 million years ago. Scientific consensus agrees that this event directly led to the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs, and it is evidenced by a thin layer of iridium found at that geological layer marking the K–Pg boundary.

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Взрыв метеорита над Челябинском 15 02 2013 avi-iCawTYPtehk.ogv

| image2 = Fireball geminids 2010-12-09 01-10ut.gif

| image3 = Bolide 9-22-24.webm

| caption1 = Footage of a superbolide exploding over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia in 2013.

| caption2 = A bolide from the Geminids meteor shower (SAO RAS, vmag  −3) in December 2010.

| caption3 = Dashcam footage of a bolide over Vermont, USA in September 2024.

}}

{{clear}}

{{commonscat|Bolide}}

{{div col}}

• {{annotated link|Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9#Impacts|Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 § Impacts}}
• {{annotated link|Earth-grazing fireball}}
• {{annotated link|Meteor procession}}
• {{annotated link|Tollmann's hypothetical bolide}}
• {{annotated link|Impact event#Airbursts}}
• {{annotated link|Bugatti Bolide}}
• {{annotated link|RBS 70}}

{{div col end}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Wiktionary}}

• [https://archive.today/20130703201541/http://b612foundation.org/data-visualization-bolides/ historic record of bolides that have been witnessed entering the Earth’s atmosphere around the world from 861 through 2012] (B612 Foundation)
• [https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/ Bolide Events from 1988 to the present] neo.jpl.nasa.gov
• [https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/ImpactEffects/ Earth Impact Effects Program] Estimates crater size and other effects of a specified body colliding with Earth.

{{Modern impact events}}

{{Planetary defense}}

{{Meteorites}}

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