Comets, Asteroids & Meteors
Celestial Objects
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Discover Comets, Asteroids & Meteors
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Comets Asteroids and Meteors are all over the solar system. But did you know that each are quite different? You may be wondering "What is a comet?", "What is an asteroid made of?", or "Where does a meteor come from?" Well, sit tight because in this video we will answer all of your questions! We first take a closer look at asteroids.
Asteroids are the largest of the space rocks, but may also include metal substances. Most of them go around the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The area of orbit is called the Asteroid Belt, which includes an inner and an outer region. The inner region is made up of asteroids that mostly contain metal (Gold, Iron, Platinum, and Nickel).
Lastly, we explore Meteors, meteoroids, and meteorites. Meteors are sometimes called falling or shooting stars, and they begin as meteoroids traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere. They are not stars. They are small pieces of rock or metal originating from a comet or asteroid. They form from colliding asteroids of debris from comets. A meteorite is a meteoroid that does not burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, but instead, falls to the Earth’s surface
The outer region contains Asteroids mostly made up of rocks. We then explain what a Comet is. You can think of a comet as a large snowball filled with or covered by dust, metal, and debris.. They have an icy core, covered by a layer of black dust. The center is mainly composed of water and gases, frozen and mixed together with bits of rock and metal. A comet in the outer parts of the Solar System is too small to be seen from Earth. We then talk about the difference between short and long period comets.
Comets
Comet Hall-Bopp, it was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades
Composition: Comets are often called "dirty snowballs" because they're made up of a mixture of ice, dust, and rock. The ice is mostly frozen water, but it can also contain other gases like methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. The dust is made up of tiny particles of rock and minerals.
Opens in a new window en.wikipedia.orgAppearance: When a comet gets close to the Sun, the ice starts to vaporize, forming a coma (a giant, fuzzy head) and a tail of gas and dust that can stretch for millions of kilometers. The tail always points away from the Sun, because it's being pushed by the solar wind.
Opens in a new window en.wikipedia.orgFamous comets: Some of the most famous comets include Halley's Comet, which can be seen from Earth every 75 years, and Comet Hale-Bopp, which put on a spectacular show in 1997.
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Diagram of a comet showing the dust tail, dust trail, and ionized gas tail, which is formed by the solar wind flow.
Asteroids
Composition: Asteroids are mostly made up of rock and metal, with some variations depending on their type. There are three main types of asteroids: carbonaceous asteroids, which are rich in carbon and may have been the source of water on Earth; S-type asteroids, which are made up of silicates and are the most common type; and M-type asteroids, which are rich in metals like iron and nickel.
Opens in a new window science.nasa.govAppearance: Asteroids vary in size, from tiny pebbles to objects hundreds of kilometers across. They don't have tails like comets, and they usually have irregular shapes.
Famous asteroids: Some of the most famous asteroids include Vesta, which is the second-largest asteroid in the solar system, and Eros, which was the first asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft.
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Vesta (left), with Ceres (center) and the Moon (right) shown to scale
Meteors
A meteoroid shown entering the atmosphere, causing a visible meteor and hitting the Earth's surface as a meteorite
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Composition: Meteors are small pieces of rock or dust that enter Earth's atmosphere. They can come from comets, asteroids, or even from the breakup of larger objects.
Appearance: When a meteor enters the atmosphere, it heats up due to friction and burns up, creating a streak of light that we see as a shooting star. If the meteor is large enough, it may not burn up completely and will land on Earth as a meteorite.
Famous meteor showers: Some of the most famous meteor showers include the Perseids, which occur in August, and the Geminids, which occur in December.
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Famous People
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) was the first person to walk on the Moon. He earned his pilot's license at 16 and joined the US Navy as a pilot during the Korean War. As an astronaut, he flew on Gemini 8 in 1966 and commanded the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface for over two hours, collecting samples and taking photos. He later became a university professor and contributed to space accident investigations.
Did You Know?
Something is eating the Milky Way. Unidentified mass sucking away portions of the Milky Way galaxy.
There’s a cannibal galaxy next door.
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