Meteorites are bits of the solar system that have fallen to the Earth. Most come from asteroids, including few are believed to have come specifically from 4 Vesta; a few probably come from comets. A small number of meteorites have been shown to be of Lunar (23 finds) or Martian (22) origin. One of the Martian meteorites, known as ALH84001, is believed to show evidence of early life on Mars. Though meteorites may appear to be just boring rocks, they are extremely important in that we can analyze them carefully in our labs. Aside from the few kilos of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions, meteorites are our only material evidence of the universe beyond the Earth.
| Iron | Primarily iron and nickel; similar to type M asteroids | |
| Stony Iron | Mixtures of iron and stony material like type S asteroids | |
| Chondrite | By far the largest number of meteorites fall into this class; similar in composition to the mantles and crusts of the terrestrial planets | |
| Carbonaceous Chondrite | Very similar in composition to the Sun less volatiles; similar to type C asteroids | |
| Achondrite | Similar to terrestrial basalts; the meteorites believed to have originated on the Moon and Mars are achondrites | |