earth-grazing

Of a meteoroid, entering the Earth's atmosphere and leaving into space again.

A computer program especially suited to the simulation of Earth-grazing meteors has been listed and described in the Astronomical Computing department of Sky & Telescope. The program allows for the curvature of the Earth; it is therefore possible to follow an Earth-grazing meteor as it descends, reaches perigee, and then ascends back into space.

Data on an Earth-grazing fireball photographed in 1990 October were published by Borovička and Ceplecha (1992). The U.S. daylight Earth-grazing fireball from 1972 is continuously referred to with much greater mass than the observations indicate (Z. Ceplecha 1993, submitted to Astron. Astrophys.).

Approaching the Earth closely.

How many [orbital periods] are there in a year for an Earth-grazing satellite? Since the time of Sputnik (October 4, 1957), it has been familiar that a satellite in a low orbit revolves about the Earth in about 90 minutes. That period would be 84 minutes for the hypothetical Earth-grazing satellite.

The closest previous sighting of an Earth-grazing asteroid was in March of 1989. It was 330 feet in diameter and passed at 10 times the distance to the moon.