Meteors are objects that fall through the atmosphere. Most are small grains of rock or metal that burn up in the atmosphere, producing streaks of light celebrated as shooting or falling "stars."

Thousands of meteors fall to Earth each day, depositing tons of material. When meteors survive the fall and reach the surface of the planet, they're called meteorites.

Most meteorites are tiny particles that get lost amid the dust in the ground and in the oceans, but some are big enough to find and identify. These range from small pebbles to meteorites weighing thousands of kilograms.

Meteorites are fascinating because they are fragments of other extraterrestrial objects and so give us a glimpse and better understanding of the solar system and its origins. Some meteorites have even been identified as pieces of the moon and Mars, blasted into space by ancient impacts.