Meteor & Meteorite is to Meteoroid as A & B is to Asteroid?

In astronomy,

  • A meteoroid is what it is called before it enters a planet's atmosphere,
  • A meteor is what it is called after it enters a planet's atmosphere but before it hits the surface, and
  • A meteorite is what it is called after it impacts the planet's surface.

The Question

Is there, or has there ever been, a -eor and -eorite analogue for asteroid? Like, say, just for an example, asteror or asterite?

(I looked on the OED and found out that asterite is in fact a word; but it doesn't mean what I'm looking for, or if it does, then it doesn't display that definition.)

1


There seem to be different opinions on how to define meteoroid. One big difference between meteoroids and asteroids is that asteroids don't regularly enter the atmosphere. So there's no real need for special words to describe an asteroid in the atmosphere and after impact.

For ("small") asteroids that do impact, NASA actually says that they can be called "meteorites."

The main criterion for distinguishing meteoroids from asteroids appears to be size. Wikipedia's article on "Impact event" uses the criterion that meteoroids are "Objects with a diameter less than 1 m (3.3 ft)." Other sources that I've found describing the difference:

The official definition of a meteoroid from the International Astronomical Union clearly brings out the distinction between meteoroid and asteroid: A meteoroid is a solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom.

Both asteroid and meteoroid refer to bodies in our solar system that orbit the Sun but are not large enough to be deemed planets. Traditionally, anything smaller than ten metres across was called a meteoroid.

–Diffen

In space, a large rocky body in orbit about the Sun is referred to as an asteroid or minor planet whereas much smaller particles in orbit about the Sun are referred to as meteoroids. Once a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere and vaporizes, it becomes a meteor (i.e., shooting star). If a small asteroid or large meteoroid survives its fiery passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands upon the Earth's surface, it is then called a meteorite. [bolding added]

–NASA's Near Earth Object Program FAQ

An asteroid is a solid body in Space, smaller than a planet but large enough to be seen at a distance.

A meteoroid is a solid body in Space, too small to be seen at a distance, which is discovered when it strikes something (such as the atmosphere of a planet or the surface of another body), causing a momentary flash of light (a meteor) or other disturbance in whatever it strikes, or after it makes a crater or deposits meteoritic material.

–"Meteoroids vs Asteroids", by Jeff Root, at Jeff's Space and Science Pages hosted by the Minnesota Space Frontier Society

(The above seems to be the author's advocated definition, rather than a single established definition.)