The shooting stars we see on a clear night are, in fact, small pieces of rock burning high up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and are more accurately referred to as meteors. Sometimes, small chunks of these small rock fragments survive entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, landing on the Earth’s surface as meteorites.

Such meteors can be either periodic or sporadic.

Periodic meteors normal­ly originate from co­mets, which leave a stream of dust particles in their wake which the Earth crosses once a year – thus resulting in a periodic occurrence.

Sporadic meteors, on the other hand, can originate from a wider range of parent bodies. Some meteors can even originate from other planets, moon or asteroids in the solar system.

If fragments of such meteors survive entry into Earth’s atmosphere, meteo­rite fragments from other solar system bodies can indeed find their way to the Earth’s surface.

Several Martian meteorites, for example, have been found and confirmed on Earth.