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Asteroid vs Meteor vs Meteorite vs Meteoroid

An asteroid is a celestial body of rock and metal that moves around the sun.

A meteor is a bright trail in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth’s atmosphere (also called falling star, meteor burst, or shooting star).

A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches earth as a metal or rock.

A meteoroid is a moving celestial object that is smaller than an asteroid.