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Exploring Asteroids: Facts, Types, and Differences with Comets

Discover the characteristics, types, and differences between asteroids and comets, including their sizes, compositions, and orbits. Learn about the asteroid belt, close calls with Earth, and how to differentiate between these celestial bodies.

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Exploring Asteroids: Facts, Types, and Differences with Comets

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  1. Asteroids and Comets

  2. Asteroids • Asteroids are balls of rock a few feet to several miles in diameter. • The are not large enough to be considered planets. • . • The total mass of all asteroids are less than the mass of the moon. • Thousands are discovered, but only 26 known asteroids are 200km in diameter.

  3. Diffrent Asteroids • The largest asteroid by far is 1 Ceres. • It is 974 km in diameter and contains about 25% of the mass of all the asteroids combined. • The next largest are 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta and 10 Hygiea which are between 400 and 525 km in diameter. • All other known asteroids are less than 340 km across.

  4. Close Calls and hits • This asteroid almost hit Earth when Italian astronomers were ready to catch it on film.

  5. Asteroid belt • Most asteroids orbit a belt between Jupiter and Saturn. • The belt contains hundreds of thousands of asteroids ranging from different sizes

  6. Asteroid Pictures

  7. Diffrent types of asteroids • Asteroids are sometimes metallic and come in three different forms. • There are classified as c-type, s-type, and m-type.

  8. C-type and m-type • More than 75% of asteroids are classified as c-type, or carbonaceous. • M-type, or metallic are made up of metallic iron.

  9. s-type asteroids • S-type, or siliceous asteroids make up about 17% of all asteroids. • Asteroids are measured by units of measure that record the amount of light they reflect. These are known as albedos. • They range from 0-1, 1 being the brightest.

  10. Diffrences between comets and asteroids • Comets and asteroids have similarities and differences. • Asteroids are usually made of only rock or iron. • Comets have more of a chemical makeup.

  11. More on comets • If comets are heated up, they will vaporize. • Like asteroids, comets have no atmosphere. • Comets however are more egg shaped, where as asteroids can be some irregular shapes.

  12. Comets • A cool way to tell comets and asteroids is that when a comet passes by, it looks fuzzier than an asteroid when your using an asteroid.

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