Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Meteor and Meteorite

• Early discoveries about meteors and meteorites
• Astroblemes
• What scientists now know

Meteors, also known as "shooting stars," are fragments of extraterrestrial material or, more often, small particles of dust left behind by a comet's tail. We encounter meteors every time Earth crosses the path of a comet or the debris left behind a comet. Meteors vaporize and fizzle in the atmosphere and never reach Earth's surface. At certain times of the year, large swarms of meteors, all coming from roughly the same direction, can be seen. These are called meteor showers.

Meteorites are larger chunks of rock, metal, or both that break off an asteroid or a comet and come crashing through Earth's atmosphere to strike the surface of Earth. They vary in size from a pebble to a three-ton...