Comet A diffuse body of solid particles and gas, which orbits the Sun. The orbit is usually highly elliptical or even parabolic. Fireball A bright meteor with an apparent visual magnitude of -4 mag. or brighter. Limiting magnitude Generally denotes the faintest star visible during an observation and evaluates the quality of the sky as well as the observing technique. The magnitude of the faintest meteor visible can be different from the stellar limiting magnitude, particularly for photographic and video observations .
Visual observations assume about the same limiting magnitudes for stars and meteors.
In particular, the light phenomenon which results from the entry into the Earth's atmosphere of a solid particle from space. Meteoroid A solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than a asteroid and considerably larger than an atom or molecule. Meteoroid Stream Stream of solid particles released from a parent body such as a comet or asteroid , moving on similar orbits. Various ejection directions and velocities for individual meteoroids cause the width of a stream and the gradual distribution of meteoroids over the entire average orbit. A number of meteors with approximately parallel trajectories .