Less Than Five - What's the Difference Between Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, Meteors & Meteorites?

they're part of action and sci-fi movie plots we Wade out in our backyard that season showering over earth but what's the difference between comets asteroids meteoroids meteors and meteorites [Music] let's start with comet's comets are basically big balls duck rock and metals surrounded by a thick icy shell orbiting our Sun and when comet gets too close to something hot like the Sun they're ice sublimates or goes instantly from a solid to a gas this creates a halo like glowing around the comet called a coma and our Sun strong solar winds blow the coma back giving the comment their infamous tale comets can be classified as either long period or short period depending on whether or not their orbits are longer than 200 years comets have highly elliptical orbits which means they're like a long circle in fact some comments can be taken almost completely out of the solar system before they return again [Music] next are asteroids basically asteroids are just comets without the ice just dust rock and metal most asteroids form in between Mars and Jupiter in a region called the asteroid belt while apps roads are rarely directed at Earth they do pose grave danger to our planet after all 65 million years ago a city sized asteroid hit near Mexico and caused the dinosaurs go extinct then we have meteoroids meteoroids are just pieces of rocky space debris floating around the solar system technically meteoroids are larger than a grain of dust smaller than an asteroid however most meteoroids are usually only the size of a pebble most meteoroids also come from the asteroid belt but some do come from our moon or even Mars next are meteors simply put meteors are just meteoroids that actually hit Earth's atmosphere we know these better as shooting stars as a meteor hits our atmosphere it burns up causing a big splash of light in the sky in fact the term meteor from ancient Greece literally means celestial phenomenon in the heavens above which refers directly to the flash of life itself even though they appear as big shooting stars meteors are actually only the size of pebbles last but not least meteorites a meteorite is simply a meteoroids that successfully makes it through Earth's atmosphere and hit the Earth's surface meteorites are dangerous simply because they're too small to be detected they come without a warning and even though meteorites are usually very small around the size of a pebble they're still very dangerous because they travel at high velocities fortunately very rare for a meteoroids actually make it through earth thick atmosphere thanks birth for more awesome videos about our universe subscribe comment and share below [Music]

Channel: Astronimate

Views: 762,970

Keywords: astronimate, astronomy, space, universe, facts, explained, comets, asteroids, meteoroids, meteors, meteorites, differences, science, physics, astrophysics, nasa, fascinating, scifi, educational, learning

Id: dvd47rMYia0

Length: 3min 43sec (223 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2017