How is a comet different from an asteroid?

Answer 1

The main difference is that asteroids tend to be dense chunks of solid rock, iron and organic material, whereas comets are less dense and more loose lumps of ice, dirt, rock and organic matter - "dirty snowballs." Asteroids seem to be dead, inert chunks of solid rock, but the ice in comets means that when they get close to the Sun, some of that ice starts to melt and evaporate into space, making the comet grow a fuzzy, thin atmosphere called a coma, which ultimately streams out behind the comet (pushed out by the Solar Wind, a stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun into space) and grows into a tail.

Most asteroids are held in a belt between Mars and Jupiter, where they follow roughly circular, planet-like orbits. Comets, on the other hand, tend to come from much further out in the Solar System - either from the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, or the Oort Cloud much further out - and have very long, thin, highly eccentric and elliptical orbits.

Recently though scientists have found the distinction between asteroids and comets isn't all that clear cut. Objects called centaurs, which travel between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune, look like asteroids and have asteroid-like orbits, yet are made of significant amounts of ice and often get fuzzy when they get relatively close to the Sun. Many asteroids in the outer part of the main asteroid belt contain a lot of ice. And many asteroids we can point to seem to be ancient ex-comets whose ice has all melted and evaporated, leaving behind the dust and rock that has compacted into a single mass - an asteroid.

Answer 2

A comet usually consists of water and other sediments and gasses. Asteroids are usually made of rock and/or other metals. Asteroids that enter the earth's atmosphere are called meteors. Meteors usually burn up before reaching the surface of the earth.

danh's answer:

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Comet is usually made of dirty ice, although there are a few rare cases where comets are actually made of metals as well as ice. Comets consist of an ion tail, pointing away from the sun, and a "dirt" tail, the tail that you can see.

Asteroids float in space, and are usually made of irons. They are HUGE! Maybe comparing a meteoroid and a comet might give better search results.

difference between asteroid and meteoroid? the size.

meteoroids can fall to earth, called a meteor, and crash on earth, called a meteorite. Comets never fall to earth because they will burn up in the atmosphere.

meteoroids mostly come from the Kuiper belt, while comets come from the Oort cloud

Hope this helps :)

I didn't want to mess up the previous answers, so I just made my own mini answer

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Answer 3

The major difference is that, because of the volatile frozen material found in a comet, it displays a "tail" of vaporized material and debris when it approaches close to the Sun. Their orbits keep comets far from the Sun and inner planets for most of the time, but many have stable orbits that bring them closer with a period of from a few years to 100 years or more.

Answer 4

Comets are thought to have originated from further out in our solar system, beyond the orbits of Neptune, while asteroids are thought to have been left over from the formation of the inner rocky planets. Comets have tails when they get close enough to the sun as the ice on them turns to vapour. Asteroids have less ice and dont give off tails.

Answer 5

Simply put, asteroids are primarily made of rock and/or metal while comets are mostly composed of ice. Asteroid generally orbit closer to the sun as well.

Answer 6

Asteroids are chunks of rock and iron, while comets are chunks of dirty ice.

Answer 7

Comets are made of dust and ice; asteroids Are made of rock or metal

Answer 8

doug choi is a comet

Answer 9

asteroids are rocks and comets are ice