Chondrites: the most common meteorite type, explained

Chondrites make up the large majority of meteorites that fall to earth and get named after the chondrules they contain, tiny once molten droplets of rock that formed in the early solar system and were later incorporated into the parent asteroid before it ever differentiated into a metal core and rock mantle the way earth did. This is a genuinely important point, chondrites represent some of the oldest, least altered material in the solar system, essentially unchanged building blocks from before the planets formed. They are subdivided by iron content and oxidation state into groups like H, L, and LL chondrites, a classification that requires lab analysis to determine precisely, though most chondrites do show at least a weak to moderate magnetic response due to their metal content.