ASTEROIDS AND COMETS

Asteroids- Asteroids look like tiny, slowly moving stars when you look through a telescope.  They are made of metallic and rocky materials.It has a 2.8 distance from the sun when orbiting. some of them cross earths orbit. they range in size from boulders to mountain-size chunks. Tons measure more than half a mile across.  The asteroid belt is between mars and jupiter. they may be left from the time when the planets formed. Jupiter's strong gravitational pull may have kept the Asteroid belt from forming a planet.Sometimes pieces of them chip off.If a meteoroid enters earth surface it looks like a shooting star. If it should reach earth's surface it's called a meteorite. Scientists hope to find out how the solar system was formed by studying meteorites. An asteroid hit earth. It hit and is now the Barringer meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona. If all asteroids in the belt came together to form a planet it would only be about 932 miles across.   

Comets-They are messengers from the outer limits of the solar system.  Comets are the icy debris from that dim beginning and can survive only far away from the Sun. Most comets in the Oort Cloud are in an area 10,000 to 50,000 times farther from the sun than earth is. Similar to the moons of the giant planets. Grow coma a cloud-like head. It can measure tens of thousands of kilometers across. the coma grows as it gets closer to the sun. Sun pushes on coma and blows it back like a flag in the wind and giving rise to the comet's "tails."  The tails can reach 93 million miles in length but the total amount of material contained in this dramatic display would fit in an ordinary suitcase. Hale-Bopp and Halley's Comet are famous comets that come in the solar system repeatedly. A comets tail can easily stretch as far as the distance between Earth and Mars. an average of 5 to 10 new comets are discovered every year.

Return to  Home