When a meteoroid reaches the ground as a meteorite, it can help complete our imaging of the universe. Many meteorites are pieces of matter unchanged since the earliest days of the solar system, while others are bits of Mars or the Moon blasted into orbit by comet or asteroid impacts.

Meteorites are divided into three main types according to their composition:
1. Stony meteorites
2. Iron meteorites
3. Stony Iron meteorites.

Stony meteorites are angular gray or brown stones, made up of stony minerals. They tend to be fairly smooth and often have a glassy back fusion crust, formed as the rock ablated in the atmosphere.

Iron meteorites contain 90% iron and 10% nickel, making them heavy for their size. Their surfaces can be black or rusty brown and are often pitted with thumbprint-shaped depressions.

Sunny iron meteorites bridge the stony and iron classifications. They have the coarsest surface, with crystals of olivine in a network of nickel-iron.