Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
When a meteor lands on Earth (after which it is termed a meteorite), it is not necessarily hot. A meteoroid's great speed during entry is enough to melt or vaporize its outermost layer, but any molten material would probably be quickly blown off (ablated). The interior of the meteoroid probably does not have time to heat up because the hot rocks are poor conductors of heat. Also, atmospheric drag can slow small meteoroids to terminal velocity by the time they hit the ground, giving the surface time to cool down. [page needed]