meteoroid
-- a tiny space rock (usually a speck of debris from a comet or
asteroid) while it is in space or flying through Earth's atmosphere
meteor -- a streak of light in the sky caused by a disintegrating
meteoroid
meteorite -- a rock from space that hit the ground because
it did not burn up entirely in the atmosphere.
Asteroid
Classes:
C-type --
includes more than 75% of
known asteroids: extremely dark (albedo 0.03); similar to carbonaceous
chondrite meteorites; approximately the same chemical composition
as the Sun minus hydrogen and helium.
S-type
-- 17% of all main-belt asteroids:
relatively bright (albedo .10-.22); metallic nickel-iron mixed
with iron- and magnesium-silicates;
M-type
-- most of the rest: bright
(albedo .10-.18); pure nickel-iron. There are also a dozen or
so other rare types.