What is the difference between a comet asteroid meteor and meteorite?

Answer 1

Asteroids are made of rock or metal and are created in the inner, warmer solar system where as a meteor is had of ice, rock, and carbon-based compounds and are created in the colder, outer solar system.

Another Take On ItThe primary difference between asteroids and meteoroids is size. They're made of the same stuff, but tradition in the science has held that asteroids are bigger in diameter than 10 meters, roughly 33 feet. Smaller hunks of rock, iron, ice, etc. that whiz around the sun are called meteoroids.

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A "meteor" is the glowing streak of light in the sky caused by some object falling through the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. If the object survives and hits the Earth, it is called a "meteorite". Before it hits the atmosphere it may be a "meteoroid", or it may be something else.

Answer 2

A comet is a small icy body that orbits the Sun, often with a visible tail when close to the Sun. An asteroid is a rocky object that orbits the Sun, usually found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. A meteor is the streak of light produced when a meteoroid (small rocky or metallic body) enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up due to friction. A meteorite is any part of a meteoroid that survives the journey through the atmosphere and lands on Earth's surface.

Answer 3

Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive body, composed of rock, carbon or metal, which is orbiting the Sun.

Comet: A relatively small, sometimes active object, which is composed of dirt and ices. Comets are characterized by dust and gas tails when in proximity to the Sun. Far from the Sun it is difficult to distinguish an asteroid from a comet.

Meteoroid: A small particle from an asteroid or comet orbiting the Sun.

Meteor: A meteoroid that is observed as it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere - a shooting star.

Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and impacts the Earth's surface.

Answer 4

They are essentially the same thing, rock debris from space. They are called meteoroids when in space, meteors when seen burning up in the sky and meteorites if any pieces are found on the planet surface.

Answer 5

• A meteoroid is a small dust to pebble sized lump of space debris
• A meteor (or shooting star) is a meteoroid that enters Earths atmosphere.
• A meteor shower is lots of meteors.
• A meteorite is a meteor that makes it through Earths atmosphere and lands on the ground.

See related questions.

Answer 6

A meteoroid is a rock floating through space. There's no fixed cutoff for size, but at some point we stop talking about "meteoroid" and start referring to large-ish rocks as "asteroid". Pretty much, if we can see it in a telescope while it's still floating in space, it's an asteroid, and meteoroids are smaller.

A "meteor" is the streak of light in the sky caused when a space rock gets too close to the Earth and enters the Earth's atmosphere. Due to friction and compression, the rock is heated to incandescence and normally burns up in the atmosphere. Sometimes the space rock explodes.

If pieces of the exploded and burned space rock manage to last long enough to strike the Earth, they are called "meteorites".

Answer 7

A star is a burning hot ball of burning hot ionized gasses(plasma) and aeteor is just a chunk of rock.

Answer 8

a meteor is burns up in the atmosphere, a meteorite doesn't.

Answer 9

A meteor is a piece of space rock orbiting the sun, which it's icy surface forms a tail, which makes a shooting star. A meteorite is a meteor that hits the Earth's surface.

Answer 10

1+1=3