Meteor air burst

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A meteor air burst is an air burst caused by a meteor exploding within a planetary body's atmosphere after entering, before actually colliding with the planetary surface (lithosphere or hydrosphere). It is a type of impact event that generates a measurable shock wave but does not leave behind any typical impact structure in the crust. Aerodynamic heating causes meteors to become so-called fireballs or bolides, with the brightest ones known as superbolides. Such meteors were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of meters in diameter, which separates them from the much smaller and far more common meteoroids that usually burn up quickly upon atmospheric entry as "shooting stars". Extremely bright fireballs traveling across the sky are often witnessed from a distance, such as the 1947 Sikhote-Alin meteor and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor. If the bolide is large and dense enough, it may survive long enough into the atmospheric entry to build up a spectacular mid-air explosion...

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