Asteroids, Comets and Meteors What’s the Difference?

What is an Asteroid? An asteroid is a rocky, metallic object that orbits the sun in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter It can be known as a planetoid or minor planet.

How Big Is an Asteroid? Asteroids can range in size from tiny pebbles to about 578 miles in diameter (which is the size of TEXAS!)

The Asteroid Belt The Asteroid Belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. It is composed of about 40,000 asteroids. It may be material that never formed into a planet. Jupiter’s gravity keeps the asteroids from swaying into the inner planets.

An Interesting Asteroid Fact A gravitational pull of a planet can pull an asteroid out of its solar orbit. Astronomers theorize that the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimis, are captured asteroids.

Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites Meteoroids are broken pieces of asteroids. A meteors is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth’s atmosphere. To us, we call it a “shooting star”. Meteorites are meteors that fall to the Earth’s surface.

Barringer Crater Over 50,000 years ago, a meteorite fell in Arizona. The result was the Barringer Crater between Flagstaff and Winslow, Arizona. The crater is 1 mile wide and 570 ft. deep.

What is a Comet? It is a small, icy celestial body that orbits around the Sun It has a nucleus, coma (blob of gas) and a tail. A comet is referred to as a “dirty snowball”.

Kuiper Belt Comets come from the Kuiper Belt The Kuiper Belt orbits around the sun and is located beyond Neptune

Halley’s Comet A famous comet is Halley’s comet after Sir Edwin Halley. It has an average orbit of 76 years because the gravitational pull of major planets alter its revolution. The next time Halley’s comet will be seen will be in 2062. How old will you be?