"I think I found a meteor"

Many people very frequently get confused between meteors and meteorites.  Scientists often find humor in phone calls or e-mails from curious people who think they've found "meteors"; they have not found meteors.  The direct definition of a meteor is a scientific name for a shooting star or "the light emitted as fragments of cosmic material which we sometimes see at night burning high up in the earth's atmosphere".  There is no way people could find meteors on the surface of Earth, because meteors are not the rocks that fall on earth, nor do the fragments of a meteor shower get close enough to earth to touch.  Meteor showers occur when Earth is passing quickly through parts of debris in the atmosphere from comets, and are commonly ice chunks that are traveling so fast toward Earth that they emit light, but never actually reach Earth's surface.  When people say that they "think they found a meteor", they actually mean they have found a meteorite.  A meteorite is a rock that contains large amounts of iron and once existed as part of a planet or an  asteroid.  After these rock fragments broke of the larger body, they wandered in space until they found their way into Earth's orbit and eventually made their way onto Earth's surface.  At first, during their journey through Earth's atmosphere, the meteorites have a short-lasting firey glow, but it quickly cools down.  By the time the meteorite reaches Earth it is cooled down and has been uniquely shaped to give it an original and distinctive look.  So when people say that have found "meteors" on Earth, that is quite impossible; but they can find meteorites!

http://geology.com/meteorites/