Bolide

[5] 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"[6]) has been interpreted by astronomers as a bolide in the modern sense.

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

[4] 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.

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.