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Asteroids Comets and
Meteors
"A comet is a
small solar system body that has a
coma and/or a
tail and is bigger than a
meteoroid. When close enough to the Sun, a comet
exhibits a visible
coma (fuzzy "atmosphere"), and sometimes a tail, both
because of the effects of
solar radiation upon the
comet's nucleus. Comet nuclei are themselves loose
collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles, ranging
from a
few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across."
Source:
Wikipedia "A meteoroid is a
sand- to
boulder-sized particle of debris in the
Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that
enters
Earth's (or another body's)
atmosphere is called a meteor. If a
meteor reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is
called a
meteorite. Many meteors appearing seconds or
minutes apart are called a
meteor shower. The root word meteor comes from
the
Greekmeteōros, meaning "high in the air". A
meteor is also commonly called a
shooting star and
falling star." Source:
Wikipedia
"Asteroids, sometimes called
minor planets or planetoids, are small
Solar System bodies in orbit around the
Sun,
especially in the inner Solar System; they are smaller than
planets but larger than
meteoroids. The term "asteroid" has historically been
applied primarily to minor planets of the inner Solar
System, as the
outer Solar System was poorly known when it came into
common usage. The distinction between asteroids and
comets is made on visual appearance: Comets show a
perceptible
coma while asteroids do not."
Source:
Wikipedia