You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer to download the information. Click here to download Acrobat. A meteor can be interplanetary dust, rock, or debris as it passes through our atmosphere and is heated to incandescence. Meteors are often called shooting stars. A meteorite is a meteor that actually falls to the ground.
Most meteors burn up and never make it to the ground.
A meteoroid is the dust, rock, or debris still in space. It could be a chunk of an asteroid or comet. A comet is a very old body of ice mixed with rock and organic material. The Earth is getting hit with objects every day. Most of these objects are the size of dust particles, although some are somewhat larger.