Comets and Asteroids and Meteors, Oh My!

The majority of the asteroids present in our solar system are located in the Asteroid Belt, which consists of between 1.1 and 1.9 million larger asteroids and millions of smaller ones. This belt was formed towards the beginning of our solar system’s existence, when in many other parts of the system, debris was colliding and gradually forming other planets. However, the gravitational force exerted by the planet Jupiter, which we will be discussing shortly, impeded the formation of another planet in this region, and the Asteroid Belt was born.

ASTEROIDS

Asteroids, also known as “minor planets” or “planetoids,” are the leftover fragments from our solar system’s formation. They are composed of various rock and mineral formations, and possess no atmosphere or air of their own. These rocky chunks can get as large as 580 miles in diameter. Although most asteroids orbit within the aforementioned Asteroid belt, there are a few known exceptions closer to Jupiter’s orbital path as well as between that of Earth and Mars. These closer asteroid formations are known as Near-Earth Asteroids, and consist of three major groups: Apollos, Amors, and Atens.

COMETS

Asteroids are often confused with a different popular celestial body: the comet. Comets are most often composed of frozen water, dust particles, and other frozen materials, such as methane and carbon dioxide. Many Wizards and Muggles associate the image of the comet with a large, solid, round chunk with a tail streaming off the end. This characteristic “tail” is formed when the comet draws close to the Sun. Dust particles from the comet are pushed away from the surface as the heat and charged particles from the sun cause ice to transition first to gas and then ions, forming the long, streaming tail so often depicted with comets. It is believed that most comets inhabit what is known as the Oort Cloud, which is further beyond the orbit of the very last planet of our solar system.

METEORS

This is a smaller piece of space debris, typically reaching only little over a half a mile in diameter. These chunks of metal and rocky material are known as “meteors” once they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Most of the time, as soon as they do so, they burn up before they ever reach the ground. However, when meteoroids, asteroids, or comets do reach the ground without burning upon entering the atmosphere, they are known as meteorites.

METEOROIDS

Meteoroids are small rocks that range in size from as large as a boulder to as small as a grain of sand. They are composed of a variety of substances. Some meteoroids are made of snow or ice, while others are made of dense nickel and iron. Meteoroids travel in orbit around the Sun, and their speed can vary, although most are quite fast; the fastest can travel at 42 kilometers per second.

FIREBALLS

Fireballs are super bright meteors, even brighter than the visible planets. The Leonid meteor shower is well known to have fireballs. Another name for a fireball is a bolide.

THE KUIPER BELT

The Kuiper belt is the disk-shaped region filled with icy bodies, located beyond Neptune’s orbit. It is located billions of kilometers away from the Sun, and is home to the majority of known dwarf planets, with most likely hundreds more dwarf planets and other celestial bodies waiting to be discovered. Its distance ranges from about 30 AU to 55 AU from the Sun.