If you've ever wondered just what "shooting stars" looked like, or what they are, the following information and photos will satisfy your curiosity.

The "shooting stars," or "falling stars" that you've seen streaking across the night sky are called meteors.  Most of them are composed of particles outgassed from comets.  Every time a comet enters the solar system, it encounters the solar wind, and as it nears the sun, gaseous material is vented.  The vented material is pushed outward by the solar wind, creating the famous comet tails.  Bits of rocky material and metals are broken off during these "outgassings," and many bits are left behind in the wake of the comet's orbital plane.  As the Earth makes its way around the sun, it occasionally encounters the wake of previously passing comets.  The result of our atmosphere plowing through these particulates is a meteor shower, as these particulates are, for the most part, burned up.  For the most part, meteor showers are predictable, and occur at the same time each year.  The Perseid Meteor Shower in mid-August is from the passage of Comet Swift-Tuttle.  The Orionids, in late October, are from Halley's Comet, as are the Eta-Aquarids in mid-May.  The Leonids, in mid-November, are from Comet Tempel-Tuttle.  This comet has just started to break up nicely, and its debris is especially rich every thirty-three years, just after each cometary pass through our solar system. 

Ancient people also noted these showers, and meteoric iron was often used to make ceremonial and serviceable weapons and tools.  The dagger that rested on King Tut's chest is made from meteoric iron.

Occasionally, larger bits broken off from planetary or satellite (various moons) impacts are hurled through space and are caught by Earth's gravity.  If the piece is large enough to survive its passage through our atmosphere, it will fall to the earth as a meteorite.  Meteors are atmospheric.  Meteorites actually land upon the Earth.  Meteoroids are simply bits of debris in space, too small to be called an asteroid.  Asteroids are bodies large enough to be detectable by telescope.

Meteorites generally arrive with a crusty outer shell (the fusion crust) due to the fact that their exterior has been melted during their entry into Earth's atmosphere, and the molten material is cooled after impact.  Meteors can be rocky, metallic, or a combination of both.  The composition of meteor samples taken as a whole suggests the possibility that a small planetary body or bodies may have been broken up by an enormous impact with another body or each other.  Much of the material found in meteorite samples suggests that the material came from a differentiated body--a small planet or moon that had a core (molten metal that crystallizes), a mantle, and a crust (crustal material includes carbonaceous chondrites--carbon being the important element).  Since the material seems to be differentiated in some samples, and may be less terrestrial in others, some meteors may be more icy in composition.  This raises the question of where these particles came from.  An obvious answer is the asteroid belt.  That, however, brings up the larger question..."Where did the asteroids come from?"  It would appear that one or more small planetary bodies or moons have collided and have scattered debris throughout the solar system.  Much of that debris has found a relatively stable orbit between Mars and Jupiter.  Naturally, if such an impact occurred, particles and chunks of both worlds would have bombarded the entire solar system, and some may have even escaped the gravity of our system to travel through space until caught by the gravity of a distant star, planet, or moon.  
[An illustrated short story in the Junior Astronomers' section addresses this concept.  (See:  "History of A Visitor from Space").  You may also reference Astronomical Terminology.]

Most meteors are tiny...no larger than grains of rice or pencil erasers.  They burn up completely when they enter Earth's atmosphere, but as they are incinerated, we enjoy the spectacular "trail" that streaks across the night sky.  Most begin glowing at about 100 miles up in the Ionosphere, but are totally vaporized as they reach the Stratosphere about 40 miles above Earth's surface.  A few larger pieces may actually make it through the atmosphere, and fall to Earth as meteorites.

Bolides are larger pieces that explode, and leave behind a magnificent glowing trail.  Some of their larger fragments may reach the ground as meteorites.  Some break up spectacularly, with chunks falling away from the main body.  They may resemble an aircraft on fire, and many have been seen in broad daylight..  Those which are seen to explode and the pieces are immediately recovered are called "falls."  These are scientifically the most valuable, because they are fresh and uncontaminated by soil erosion.  Scientists study the differences between meteorites and Earth-based rocks and minerals to try to understand the composition of our planet, as well as other celestial bodies.    

There is some discussion in the astronomical community of the true nature of tektites.  These pieces resemble meteorites, but are generally composed of obsidian or other glassy materials, and appear to be formed as a result of violent impacts.  Material at "Ground Zero" is melted and blown above the atmosphere, and is re-melted upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.  Many of the pieces show nodule formations on the surface from the melting and cooling of the material.  The bright lunar rays of the newer Craters like Copernicus and Tycho are formed of this same type of material--impact glass.  Much of this material forms small beads, but occasionally larger pieces are found.  These may be brown or orange-brown, black, or green.  Black and green forms are illustrated below.  When fractured, tektites display a glass fracture pattern much like obsidian (a volcanic glass), rather than simple cracking or crumbling. 
Another theory that is popular, especially among non-scientists, is that tektites were, themselves, from a very large meteorite that fell to Earth and was shattered.  Many people revere these tektites, especially Moldavites, and use them as adornment for ceremonial objects and as prot