Asteroids, Comets & Meteors: What’s the Difference?
There are millions of giant rocks hurtling around the the solar system. Some of them stay in the cosmos and others penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. So how do you tell the difference between...
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We all know space rocks, but what about the rocks in space? Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors are hurtling through the solar system. So how do you tell them apart and which rocks could hit our planet? Comets pass near Earth but they never make it to the surface. These cosmic snowballs form overtime in the outer reaches of the solar system and are made up of ice, rock and metal. If a comet gets too close to the sun, some of the ice heats up and turns into a gas, creating a glowy layer and that famous tail. If a comet were to shed its ice, it’d become an asteroid. Meh. These space rocks can be as big as an entire country or as small as a chihuahua head. Most of the time, you can find them hanging out in the asteroid belt, a rocky superhighway between Mars a...
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We all know space rocks, but what about the rocks in space? Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors are hurtling through the solar system. So how do you tell them apart and which rocks could hit our planet? Comets pass near Earth but they never make it to the surface. These cosmic snowballs form overtime in the outer reaches of the solar system and are made up of ice, rock and metal. If a comet gets too close to the sun, some of the ice heats up and turns into a gas, creating a glowy layer and that famous tail. If a comet were to shed its ice, it’d become an asteroid. Meh. These space rocks can be as big as an entire country or as small as a chihuahua head. Most of the time, you can find them hanging out in the asteroid belt, a rocky superhighway between Mars a...
