That's when a comet develops it's tail. The sun's heat releases gases in the comet creating a cloud around the comet's core. Particles hurdled out by the sun called the solar winds distort the cloud creating the comet's tail. Comet Hale- Bopp is now on a two to three thousand year trek around our sun. Only when a comet or asteroid enters the earth's atmosphere is it called a meteor.
Meteors usually appear as brief streak of light in the atmosphere.
Occasionally they crash to earth. It happened Siberia in 1908. If it's large enough, these meteors can actually make their way all the way through the atmosphere and land on the ground. We call those meteorites. Comet Hale-Bopp is about 120 million miles away.