Asteroids, Comets, Meteors

Asteroids

A small rocky body that revolves around the Sun. are the thousands of rocky lumps that form a circle around the Sun in a big band between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroid Belt

The region of space between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids are found

Meteors

Asteroids that have broken off of the belt and fly through space

Meteorites

Meteors that have fallen to Earth

Crater

A bowl-shaped hole in the surface of a planet left from a fallen meteorite

Comets

A small body made of dust and ice that revolves around the Sun

Ceres

One of the biggest asteroids____ is about 592 miles (952 kilometers) across. Others are as small as a grain of sand. Several hundred thousand asteroids have been identified so far. Asteroids are leftover rocks from the time when the planets were first formed.

Meteors

are also known as “shooting stars” “falling stars”

nucleus

is solid and known as the central part of the comet.

coma

when the comet gets close to the sun, the gases sublimate and create an envelope or cloud around the nucleus, which is refered to as the___

Oort cloud

which was named after Jan Oort, is found at the outermost part of the solar system.

Kuiper belt

on the other hand, is an area where most comets are found and is located near the orbits of Neptune up to Pluto and a little beyond

Meteoroids

are generally composed of nickel and iron, but some show composition similar to Earth's chondrites. There are three types of meteorites-the iron (metallic) meteorite, the stony (rocky) or stone meteorite, and the stony-iron (combination of rocky and metallic) meteorite.