Meteoroid

A burning meteoroid produces a meteor.

A meteoroid is a piece of stone-like or metal-like debris which travels in outer space.

If a meteoroid falls into the Earth's atmosphere, it will begin to heat up and start to glow. This is called a meteor.

Any leftover part of the meteoroid that does strike the Earth is called a meteorite.

A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky caused when a meteoroid (a small chunk of rock or ice) enters the Earth's atmosphere and heats up.

“The Geminids are produced by a stream of debris from this asteroid that we run into every year at this time, and they've been slowly increasing in intensity,” Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, told VOA.

A glowing-hot meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor; those meteor fragments which reach Earth's surface are meteorites. Small meteors are also known as shooting stars, while large ones are called bolides or fireballs.