The solid space particle before it becomes a meteor in the 2026 Perseid shower is a meteoroid.
Perseid meteoroids are small pieces of dust and rocky material released from Comet Swift–Tuttle. Earth encounters this debris stream during its yearly orbit, and some particles plunge into the atmosphere at high speed.
Once a meteoroid interacts with the atmosphere and creates a visible streak, the phenomenon is called a meteor. The name describes the light seen by observers, not the original particle itself. Most Perseid meteoroids are tiny and are destroyed before reaching the ground.
If any piece survives the atmospheric passage and lands on Earth, it becomes a meteorite. Thus, meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite describe different stages or outcomes of related material—not interchangeable names for the same event.