What's The Difference Between Asteroids, Comets And Meteors? Asteroids And Comets Similarities
Photo of the 2015 Perseid Meteor Shower within the Danish Sky.
In our solar system there are billions, possibly trillions, of rogue objects orbiting the sun. These spacefarers are too small to exist called planets and are given the names of comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and if they reach Earth, meteors or meteorites. With so many labels, it's easy to forget which is which.
Let's start with a brief definition of each.
Asteroids: These are the rocky and airless leftovers from the formation of planets within our solar system. They mainly orbit our sun within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and range from the size of cars to dwarf planets.
Comets: Comets are dirty volume snowballs of mainly ice and grime that formed during the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Most comets have stable orbits within the outer reaches of the solar system past the planet Neptune.
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites: Meteoroids are tiny asteroids or the broken-off crumbs of comets and sometimes planets. They range within size from a grain of sand to boulders 3 feet (1 meter) wide. When meteoroids collide with a planet's atmosphere, they become meteors. If those meteors survive the atmosphere and beat the planet's surface, their leftovers are called meteorites.
Related: between 1999 and 2018, from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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