It all depends. Meteoroids sometimes make meteors, and rarely make meteorites. And although meteors are the most commonly seen of the three, they're not really physical objects like meteoroids and meteorites. Much of the confusion can be solved by simply defining the three terms.

• Meteoroid: An object in space no smaller than a speck of dust and no larger than an asteroid. Most are thought by scientists to be pieces of asteroids or comets.



• Meteor: The streak of light that forms when a meteoroid burns while traveling at high speed through Earth's atmosphere (a "shooting star" or "falling star," whichever you prefer).



• Meteorite: The remnants of a meteoroid that has passed through the atmosphere and struck the Earth. No plain English needed there.

Space is full of meteoroids, but most of them don't come anywhere near the Earth. Of the few meteoroids that do enter the atmosphere, most of them disintegrate before forming a visible meteor in the sky. Even fewer meteorites are found on Earth, since it's very rare for a meteoroid to reach the surface without completely breaking up.

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