What are Comets and Asteroids?

Comets are icy objects that form a bright cloud and long tail as they orbit the Sun. Asteroids

are rocky, odd-shaped objects, smaller than planets.

Comets

A comet is a frozen mass of different types of ice and dust orbiting the Sun. Rocky matter may

be frozen among the ice. Comets are much smaller than planets. They come from areas of the

solar system beyond Pluto. Comets pass through the solar system in very stretched out and

elliptical paths. Several comets a year may travel into the solar system and orbit the Sun. You

may not see them, though. Only the largest comets can be seen without a telescope.

Discovering a comet is exciting. How can you discover one? Most comets today are found by

people who use telescopes to photograph the sky each night, just before sunrise. The photos

may show a fuzzy object. Another clue is that stars stay in the same relative position with other

stars, but comets do not. If an unknown object keeps changing position compared with stars

over a few hours or days, it might be a comet. If you are the first person to discover a comet, it

could be named after you.

       An asteroid is a rocky mass up to several

hundred kilometers wide that revolves around the

Sun. Asteroids are sometimes called minor planets.

Most asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt, a region

between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids have uneven

shapes. Some have smaller asteroids orbiting

them. The smallest asteroids are pebble-sized. Most

asteroids complete a revolution in three to six years.

       Can Earth be hit by asteroids? It has happened,

and you can see the huge craters that have been

the result. Such collisions are very rare. Fortunately,

Jupiter’s gravity holds most asteroids in the area

beyond Mars.

       Most asteroids have odd

shapes. This one looks

like a light brown flying nose! The largest asteroids are nearly spherical in shape, with diameters of 250 to 1000 kilometers.

       Asteroid Gaspra

Gaspra was one of the first

asteroids to be studied up close.

It is only 19 kilometers long and

about 12 kilometers wide.

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