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Meteoroid

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Animated illustration showing how a meteoroid becomes a meteor and then a meteorite as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

What is a Meteoroid?

A meteoroid is a tiny piece of rock or metal that floats in outer space. These little space rocks are much smaller than big space rocks called asteroids. They can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a basketball. Even smaller pieces are called micrometeoroids or space dust.

Many meteoroids come from old space objects called comets or broken pieces of asteroids. Some are bits of rock that flew into space after bumping into planets like the Moon or Mars.

Seeing a Meteoroid

When a meteoroid flies into Earth’s air, it glows very bright. We call this beautiful light a meteor. If lots of meteors appear together at night, all coming from one place in the sky, we call it a meteor shower. If any piece of the meteoroid makes it all the way to the ground, it is called a meteorite.

Fun Facts

  • Every day, Earth meets many tiny space rocks, but most burn up before they reach the ground.
  • Scientists study these space rocks to learn more about our solar system.

These little visitors from space give us wonderful shooting stars to enjoy!

Images

A tiny space particle left a thin, carrot-shaped path when it hit special space material called aerogel during a science mission.
A meteorite fragment discovered in the Nubian Desert, showing scientists' exploration of space materials.
A large iron meteorite found in the South Australian Outback, showcasing its unique surface patterns and scientific value.
Tektites are small, natural glass objects formed when meteorites strike the Earth. They often have interesting shapes like dumbbells and teardrops.
A slice of the Esquel meteorite, showing its unique structure, on display at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
A large meteorite displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
A meteorite found in Marília, Brazil, showcasing a fascinating piece of space history.
Kids admiring a meteorite replica at the Arizona Museum of Natural History.
A meteorite sample from Algeria, showing interesting rock patterns formed during its journey through space.
A visual guide to the major objects in our Solar System, showing the relative sizes of planets and the Sun.
A collection of images of planets in our solar system taken by NASA spacecraft, showing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
A stunning view of our planet Earth as seen from the Apollo 17 spacecraft during its journey to the Moon.
A meteorite specimen known as the Trenton meteorite, showcasing the fascinating materials that fall from space.

Related articles

Outer space
Moon
Mars
Meteor shower
Meteorite

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Meteoroid, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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