How do meteors and meteorites form?

When meteorites do hit the ground, their speed is roughly half what it was upon entry, and they blast out craters 12 to 20 times their size. Craters on Earth form much as they would on the moon or any rocky planet. Smaller objects create bowl-shaped craters. read more

This debris occasionally falls to Earth as meteorites. Collisions in the asteroid belt can send fragments of rock on a course toward Earth. Meteors may also enter Earth's atmosphere due to the long-term gravitational perturbations that eventually release a large asteroid out of the belt. read more

How and When Did Meteorites Form How and when meteorites formed is a subject of scientific theorizing. Scientists look at what they know--the form and composition of meteorites as the see it in the laboratory and the form and composition of the universe as they see it through their telescopes. read more

A meteorite is a portion of a meteoroid or asteroid that survives its passage through the atmosphere and impact with the ground without being destroyed. Meteorites are sometimes, but not always, found in association with hypervelocity impact craters; during energetic collisions, the entire impactor may be vaporized, leaving no meteorites.. read more