C o m e t s a r e m a d e o f d u s t a n d i c e. C o m e t s o f t e n c o m e f r o m : t h e K u i p e r b e l t o r t h e O o r t c l o u d. C o m e t s b r i g h t e n w h e n t h e y g o n e a r t h e s u n b e c a u s e t h e s o l a r h e a t e v a p o r a t e s. O n e o f t h e m o s t f a m o u s c o m e t s i s H a l l e y ’ s C o m e t

Sometimes comets travel in a group that has nearly the same orbit. When in the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud, comets will crash into each other and that causes them to change direction. A comets tail isn’t always in the back of the comet. Sometimes it is in the front. This is because of solar wind. When a comet is near the sun and active they have several distinct parts: the nucleus, coma, hydrogen cloud, dust tail and ion tail.

Comets are invisible except when they are near the sun! Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs. Meteor showers sometimes occur when Earth passes through the orbit of a comet. A comet’s velocity increases when it gets near the sun, but decreases when it is at the edge of its orbit. Comets sometimes crash into the sun or get so close that they burn up.

Halley’s Comet has been spotted four times. The first time, it was seen by Chinese officials about 2,000 years ago. It has been charted ever since then. It is said to be visible to earth every years. historians have recorded sightings from before 240 B.C. This comet has been seen in 1835, 1910, and The comet was named after Edmond Halley. Who noted the observation in 1531, 1607, 1682, 1758, 1834, 1910, 1986, It is predicted to appear again around 2061.

Asteroids are metallic floating rocks with out atmospheres that orbit the sun but aren’t big enough to be considered planets. History Of Asteroids An asteroid killed 10,000 people in a Chinese city an asteroid that was estimated to be about fifty meters across exploded above present-day Russia the asteroid Hermes missed Earth by about 600,000 miles. It was considered to be a “Category Killer” that could of killed millions.

More than 7,000 asteroids have been discovered. Several more are found each year. The largest asteroid is Ceres. It is 914 km across. Most asteroids are not visible with the naked eye, most of them you can see with a telescope or binoculars. The only asteroids that have been closely studied is the Ida and the Gaspra.

Some meteoroids orbit each other, this is called Stream Component. The fastest meteoroid roughly travels about 26 miles per second. Meteoroids have done some minor damage to spacecraft including the Hubble Space Telescope. Meteoroids orbit the Sun.

When meteoroids hit the earth, they become known as meteorites. A meteoroid is thought to have been a possible cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Meteoroids sometimes cause meteor shows which are pretty.

By: Brandon Moore Austin St. Michel Tori Blaylock Jacob Samson