Download Asteroids, Meteors, and Comets

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Asteroids, Meteors, and
Comets
Comets
From Greek: Long-haired star
A comet is a dirty snowball about the size of
an Earth mountain
Orbits are usually very long, narrow ellipses
Come from the Kuiper Belt and Ort Cloud
Parts of a comet
a.
b.
c.
i.
ii.
iii.
Nucleus – the inner part of a comet
Coma – the gas and dust released from the comet.
Caused by energy from the sun
Tail – solar wind pushes gas and dust away from
the sun, causing the tail. Can be hundreds of
millions of kilometers long
Asteroids
Located between Mars and Jupiter.
Called the asteroid belt
Asteroids are large chunks of rock that are too
numerous and too small to be considered
planets
Made almost entirely of iron and / or nickel
Meteors

Meteoroid
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Meteor
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A chunk of rock or dust in space
Usually come from asteroids or comets
A chunk of rock or dust that has entered the Earth’s
atmosphere (called a shooting star)
Meteorite
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A chunk of rock or dust from space that has entered
the Earth’s atmosphere and has hit the surface