Salt Lake City Meteor: Astronomers In Utah Explain The Saturday show

A piece of rock or iron that has survived a fiery descent through the atmosphere and has fallen on the ground is known as a meteorite.

Meteorites are thought to be fragments of asteroids that originated most likely in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

They eventually crash to Earth after travelling around the solar system for endless aeons, suffering collisions and the effects of gravitational forces.

The meteoroid, also known as a meteor or shooting star, enters the atmosphere at a high speed when its trajectory crosses that of the Earth’s orbit.