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What Are They Made Of? About 92 percent of all meteorites are made of stone. About 6 percent are made of metal, iron, and nickel. They’re also made of ice and stone. Asteroids are rocky debris left over from the formation of our solar system. Some of these asteroids were primarily made up of rocky material left over from the creation of the planets. The typical comet is a small oblong chunk of ice about 5-10 miles across. This chunk is called the comet’s nucleus. Our solar system was originally made of dust and gas that orbited around the sun. Out of this sea of dust and gas the nine planets were born: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto. More than 60 moons also took shape. Millions of comets and asteroids were left over. |