Comets, Asteroids & Meteors

Comets Orbit the sun, far away “Dirty Snowballs” ½ to 3 miles wide Composed of frozen ice, dust and gases Dust forms a cloud called a coma Tail created by melting ice and dust More than 800 known comets Originate from Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt Halley’s comet is the most famous Rarely seen in the sky… Comet of the century? Comets

Asteroids Travel mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter Diameters range from 3 feet to 600 miles Thousands discovered Made of dark, rocky material Difficult to see in sky Jupiter’s gravitational pull sometimes causes collisions, these collisions create meteors Asteroids

Meteors Made of dust grains, rocks Meteoroid? Meteor? Meteorite? Easy to see in the sky “Falling Star” -Meteor How can you tell if you’ve found a meteorite? Remember the meteor that hit Russia? The next meteor shower (Lyrid Meteor Shower) is April 22nd! Meteors