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Name: _____________________________
Date:
___________________
Period:
____
Comparing Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids (meteoroids)
Add the numbers for the characteristics listed below to the appropriate location on the Venn diagram.
Characterisitics
1. Progress across the sky very
slowly
2. Remnants of the formation of
the solar system
3. Reflect sunlight
4. Rocky composition
5. Orbit the Sun in highly elliptical
orbits
6. Measure a few kilometers in
diameter
7. Most found in the asteroid belt
8. Most are less than a kilometer
in diameter
9. Most have slightly elliptical
orbits
10. Most are less than 100 m in
diameter
11. Also known as shooting stars
12. Most burn up as they enter
Earth’s atmosphere
13. Streak across the sky very
fast
14. Most are fragments of large
asteroids
15. Icy objects
16. Caused by the Earth passing
through the
debris path of a comet
17. Tail always points away from
the Sun
Name__________________
Date:
__________________
Period:
___
Comets, Asteroids, Meteors Worksheet
Origin
Size
Comets
Kuiper Belt and
Oort Cloud
c.
Composition d.
Orbit
f.
Asteroids
a.
Meteoroids
b.
Smaller than a planet but Smaller than comets or
larger than meteoroids
asteroids
Rock
e.
g.
Orbit the sun like a comet
if it came from a comet,
orbit like an asteroid if it
came from an asteroid
1. What is the composition of each part of a comet?
2. How does a comet’s appearance change as it approaches the sun? Why does this occur?
3. Draw the orbit of a comet (don’t forget to include the tail).
Sun
4. What causes a meteoroid to become a meteorite?
5. How can you tell a meteor from a comet?
6. Why do meteoroids usually disintegrate rather than fall to Earth?
7. Why is a “shooting star” an inaccurate name for a meteor?