A surviving fragment of a 2026 Perseid meteoroid is called a meteorite if it reaches the ground. The word applies to material recovered after passage through Earth’s atmosphere.
Before entry, the solid particle is a meteoroid. The flash or streak produced during atmospheric entry is a meteor. If part of the original body survives that passage and lands on Earth, the remaining solid material becomes a meteorite.
Most Perseid particles are small and completely ablate high in the atmosphere, so meteorites from the shower are not commonly recovered. The Perseid stream comes from Comet Swift–Tuttle, whose dust particles are generally much smaller than the parent comet itself. This distinction explains why a spectacular meteor shower does not normally produce a collection of large rocks on the ground.