A Journey Through Our Solar System's Debris
Discover the distinct characteristics of comets, asteroids, and meteors. Click on the facts below to reveal more information and explore the interactive simulation.
Comets
Often called "dirty snowballs," comets are cosmic bodies of frozen gases, rock, and dust. They originate in the far reaches of our solar system and are known for their spectacular tails.
Composition: Ice and Dust
A comet's core, or nucleus, is a mixture of water ice, frozen gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia, mixed with rock and dust.
Orbit: Highly Elliptical
Comets have long, stretched-out orbits that bring them very close to the Sun and then fling them out to the solar system's edge. This is why we only see them periodically.
The Tail: A Solar Phenomenon
As a comet nears the Sun, its ice vaporizes, creating a glowing cloud called a coma and two tails: a bright dust tail and a bluish ion tail. The tails always point away from the Sun due to solar wind.
Asteroids
These are rocky, airless worlds that are remnants from the early formation of our solar system. Most are found orbiting the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Composition: Rock and Metal
Asteroids are primarily made of rock, but many also contain metals like iron and nickel. Some are solid bodies, while others are piles of rubble held together by gravity.
Location: The Asteroid Belt
While asteroids can be found throughout the solar system, the majority reside in a vast, doughnut-shaped ring between Mars and Jupiter.
Size and Shape: Diverse
They range in size from the dwarf planet Ceres (about 940 km in diameter) to objects less than 10 meters across. Their shapes are often irregular and potato-like.
Meteors
A meteor, or "shooting star," is the streak of light we see when a small piece of space debris burns up upon entering Earth's atmosphere at high speed.
The Terminology
Meteoroid: The object in space.
Meteor: The flash of light in the sky.
Meteorite: The piece that survives its journey and lands on Earth.
Origin: Cosmic Crumbs
Meteoroids are often fragments broken off from comets or asteroids. Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a trail of debris left by a comet.
Appearance: A Fiery Streak
The intense speed of a meteoroid compresses the air in front of it, causing it to heat up and glow. This is what creates the visible streak of light, not friction itself.