A meteorite is a piece of space rock that successfully survives its fiery journey through Earth's atmosphere and crashes onto our planet's surface. These cosmic visitors are remnants of asteroids, comets, or even other planets that provide scientists with invaluable samples of our solar system's 4.6-billion-year history.</p><p>Most meteorites originate from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, though some rare specimens come from the Moon or Mars itself. The famous Chelyabinsk meteorite that exploded over Russia in 2013 created a spectacular fireball and scattered thousands of fragments across the snowy landscape. Another notable example is the Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969, containing organic compounds that offer clues about life's potential origins.</p><p>Scientists classify meteorites into three main types: stony (95% of finds), iron (4%), and stony-iron (1%). The largest meteorite ever found, the Hoba meteorite in Namibia, weighs an astounding 60 tons and remains where it fell 80,000 years ago.</p><p>These space rocks are incredibly valuable to researchers because they're essentially time capsules, preserving pristine materials from the early solar system. By studying meteorites, astronomers can understand planetary formation, asteroid composition, and even search for evidence of ancient microbial life from other worlds.