What is a meteoroid called when it reaches the ground?

A meteoroid is called a meteorite when it survives its passage through the atmosphere and reaches the ground. The name describes the object’s status after atmospheric entry and impact, not its original composition.

Before entry, the space rock is a meteoroid. As it travels through an atmosphere, compression and collisions with air heat its surface and may produce a bright streak called a meteor, commonly known as a shooting star. Many meteoroids fragment or vaporize before reaching the surface, so they never become meteorites.

Meteorites can come from asteroids, comets, the Moon, or Mars. Scientists commonly classify recovered specimens as stony, iron, or stony-iron meteorites. Their minerals and isotopes provide evidence about the early Solar System and the geological histories of other worlds.

The terminology is easy to confuse: a meteor is the visible atmospheric phenomenon, while a meteorite is the surviving solid material on the ground. A large, bright meteor may be called a fireball or bolide, but those terms do not automatically mean that a meteorite was recovered.