Rocks or pieces of metal from space that have fallen to Earth's surface after burning through the atmosphere.
From Greek 'meteoros' (high in the air) plus '-ite' (rock), coined when scientists realized falling stones came from the sky; 'meteor' alone means the light trail, 'meteorite' is what lands.
Meteorites are basically alien rocks that survived one of the universe's most violent journeys—burning through our atmosphere without completely vaporizing is an incredible feat that still teaches us about planetary formation!
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