With space rocks, as with real estate, it's all about location, location, location! Credit: NASA.

When an object falls through Earth's atmosphere and burns up, it's a meteor. If a meteor lands on the ground it becomes a meteorite.

Meteoroids are objects outside Earth's atmosphere that could become meteors but haven't yet. Only astronauts have to worry about them.

If a meteor is bright enough to cast a shadow on the ground, then it's called a fireball.