A meteor is in the Earth's atmosphere, entering at high speed and burning up before hitting Earth. These are often called shooting stars, and a fireball is a meteor that appears extra bright. A meteorite is when a small part of the meteoroid survives the trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground.

Witnessing a meteor, or \"shooting star,\" is a dazzling event caused by tiny space rocks burning up in Earth's atmosphere. These celestial fragments, o

A newly discovered space rock zoomed safely by Earth on Wednesday (Oct. 15) at only about a quarter of the average distance to the moon.

• Comet – A mass of ice, rock and dust which often has a tail. The tail is made up of water vapor, dust and various gases which vaporize and grows as it gets closer to the sun. • Asteroid – A body made up of metallic and non-metallic rock orbiting ...

Of all the asteroids that become meteoroids by striking Earth's surface, only 4% contain abundant carbon. But scientists know carbon-rich asteroids are commonplace in the cosmos—they just don't often make it to Earth. Now we know why. Scientists at ...

According to a pair of scientific studies published on Wednesday, the chances of an asteroid striking Earth are higher than previously assumed. Whereas an event like February's Chelyabinsk asteroid—which emitted a large burst of light, shattered windows ...