Earth-grazing fireball

Some fragments may impact Earth as meteorites, if the meteor starts to break up or explodes in mid-air.

These phenomena are then called Earth-grazing meteor processions and bolides.

[1] Famous examples of Earth-grazers are the 1972 Great Daylight Fireball and the Meteor Procession of July 20, 1860.

For example, a meteoroid can become a meteor at an altitude of 85–120 km (53–75 mi) above the Earth.

An Earth-grazing fireball is a rarely measured kind of fireball[8] caused by a meteoroid that collides with the Earth but survives the collision by passing through, and exiting, the atmosphere.

Frederic Edwin Church , The Meteor of 1860 . In 2010, it was determined to be an Earth-grazing meteor procession. [ 1 ]
Sky photo with the Earth-grazing meteoroid of 13 October 1990 , as the light track across the picture going from the south to the north, taken at Červená hora (Czech Republic), one of the stations of the European Fireball Network .