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ShareA meteorite is a small extraterrestrial body that impacts the Earth's surface.
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While in space they are called meteoroids, and while falling through Earth's atmosphere they are called meteors.
These are small asteroids, approximately boulder-sized or less.
When it enters the atmosphere, air drag and friction cause the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball or shooting star.
For more information about the topic Meteorite, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Meteor — A meteor is the visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earth's (or another body's) atmosphere, commonly called a shooting star or falling star. ... > read more
Impact event — Impact events are caused by the collision of large meteoroids, asteroids or comets (generically: bolides) with Earth and may sometimes be followed by ... > read more
Impact crater — An impact crater is a circular depression on a surface, usually referring to a planet, moon, asteroid, or other celestial body, caused by a collision ... > read more
Tunguska event — The Tunguska event was an explosion that occurred at 60 degrees 55'N 101degrees 57'E, near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River, in what is ... > read more
Torino Scale — The Torino Scale is a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and ... > read more
Near-Earth object — Near-Earth objects (NEO) are asteroids, comets and large meteoroids whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit and which may therefore pose a collision ... > read more
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 — Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9, formally designated D/1993 F2) was a comet which collided with Jupiter in 1994, providing the first direct observation ... > read more
Chicxulub Crater — Chicxulub Crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatan peninsula, with its center located approximately underneath the town of ... > read more
Near-Earth asteroid — Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are asteroids whose orbits are close to Earth's orbit. Some NEAs' orbits intersect Earth's so they pose a collision ... > read more
Sedimentary rock — Sedimentary rock is one of the three main rock groups (along with igneous and metamorphic rocks) and is formed in four main ways: by the deposition ... > read moreNote: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Meteorite at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.
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