A meteor is a space rock that enters Earths atmosphere, causing a streak of light to appear in the sky. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause it to heat up and radiate energy. It then becomes a meteor and forms a fireball, also known as a shooting star. Astronomers call the brightest examples "bolides". Most meteors are small and burn up completely in the atmosphere, but some survive and hit the ground. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, its called a meteorite.

Meteorites are solid pieces of debris from objects such as comets, asteroids, or meteoroids that originate in outer space and survive their passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. They vary greatly in size and have traditionally been divided into three broad categories: stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites. Modern classification schemes divide meteorites into groups according to their structure, chemical and isotopic composition, and mineralogy. Most meteorites are believed to originate in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and were formed early in the history of the Solar System, about 4.56 billion years ago.

In summary, a meteor is a space rock that enters Earths atmosphere, causing a streak of light to appear in the sky. When it hits the ground, it becomes a meteorite. Meteorites are solid pieces of debris from objects that originate in outer space and survive their passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.