bolide

noun /ˈboʊ.laɪd/

1. An extremely bright meteor.

2. Any extraterrestrial body that collides with Earth.

   The smallest impactor that can penetrate the atmosphere deep enough to cause any damage on the ground is not much smaller than the "Tunguska" bolide that flattened a couple thousand square miles of Siberian forest in 1908.

3. A fireball.

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French bolide, from Latin bolis, from Ancient Greek βολίς (bolís, “missile, arrow, javelin”). Doublet of bolis.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry bolide (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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