Basic Information
A bolide is a large aerial fireball phenomenon. When appearing at night they are often brighter than the full moon. After shining brightly for a short while, they sometimes explode dramatically, other times they survive long enough to impact the Earth, and sometimes they just burn out harmlessly.
Usually, a bollide turns out to be a meteor or meteorite, a hunk of rocky or metallic asteroid. Sometimes they are caused by a hunk of icy comet (and not necessarily water ice - they could be frozen ammonia or methane). Exotic composition is certainly possible. For example, the Sutter's Mill strike (see below) deposited several small grains of diamond.
A not-insignificant percentage of UFO sightings are bolides.
Less common are superbolides, which shine 100 times as bright as a full moon (or brighter). These tend to get famous, such as the Tunguska event that hit Russia in 1908. Less devastating (and more recent) superbollides include the 2009 Sulawesi superbolide (Indonesia, 2009), the Sutter's Mill Meteorite (United States, 2012), and the Chelyabinsk meteor (Russia, 2013).
Sources
Game and Story Use
- A bolide could be a navigational hazard, interstellar terrain, or a scary natural disaster threatening an airplane, spaceship, or city.
- A mystery or monster originating from beyond the earth may first manifest as a blinding bolide in the sky.
- It could be the flaming entry plume of a Von Neumann Probe, Precursor Artifact, Alien Spaceship, Eldritch Abomination, or Sky God smashing into our atmosphere.
- After a bolide hits the earth, the crater may have meteoric iron, tektites, a baetylus, imported alien phlebotinum and/or green rocks waiting as treasure for anyone brave enough to seek them out.
- The crash site may also have an environmental hazard, such as radiation, fire or poison.