References Group Members Origins and Nomenclature Meteorites are the remains of extraterrestrial fragments of our solar system that find their way to Earth.
Most meteorites are asteroid fragments, broken up by collision with other asteroids.
In rarer cases, however, meteorites may come from the moon, comets, and even the planet Mars . Achondrites These meteorites are far more rare, and seem to have been originally chondritic. These meteorites are fragments of the shattered core of differentiated asteroids. Back to top Impacts With the recent attention given to meteorite impacts through Hollywood and the news media, people are more aware of the threat of such an event. There are approximately 140 major impact craters on Earth, and many, many more on other bodies throughout the solar system.