• Question: What is the difference between meteors and comets ??

    Asked by to Nick, Alan on 14 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Alan Fitzsimmons

      Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      A meteor is a small rock that enters out atmosphere from space. If some of the rock survives to hit the ground we call that rock a meteorite. Before it enters our atmosphere, it is going around the Sun like everything else in our Solar system,

      A comet is mostly made of ice, with small microscopic bits of rock embedded within the ice. It also goes around the Sun. When a comet is near the Sun, the ice melts and turns into gas. The gas and bits or rock make the tails of a comet.

    • Photo: Nick Wright

      Nick Wright answered on 16 Mar 2014:

      Well a comet is mostly made of ice, perhaps with some rock in it. Comets are left over from when our Solar System formed and they orbit the Sun, often in very long orbits that can take hundreds or thousands of years. When the comet comes close to the Sun the ice evaporates and the comet gains a ‘tail’ that extends away from the comet and the Sun.

      A meteor is mostly made of rock and is the name given to an asteroid when it enters our atmosphere and burns up due to friction with our atmosphere. Asteroids are also left over material from when our Solar System formed, and there are lots of them, many of them orbit the Sun in a circular orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

      Scientists are trying to track asteroids so we can study them and work out which ones might hit the Earth so we can be prepared for them. This is a good video showing how many asteroids we’ve discovered over time:

      You’ll see by the end of the video there are a LOT of asteroids out there! And we’ve barely scratched the surface, there are lots we still need to discover and track.

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