they don't become meteorites until they hit the deck, which thankfully they rarely do.
I was listening to Radio 4 this morning(15th Dec 2003 0905) and they had a female scientist on..she described herself as a meteorist..she will be giving the annual Christmas Lectures....anyhoo she said that the earth gets pelted with these things to the extent of something in the order of 10 per kilometre squared...although most are fine dust by the time they get down..so in fact(she said) we have a very good chance of being clobbered by a meteorite on a regular basis albeit a tiny dusty one
