A fragment of a meteoroid that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches the ground. Meteorites provide direct samples of asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies.
From Greek 'meteoron' plus the suffix '-ite' meaning 'rock' or 'mineral', coined in the early 19th century. The term distinguished these space rocks from terrestrial stones, as scientists began to recognize their extraterrestrial origin.
Meteorites are older than any rock on Earth! Most are 4.5 billion years old - remnants from the solar system's formation - and some even contain presolar grains that formed around other stars before our Sun existed.
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