Where Comets
Are Found
Kuiper Belt – Outside the orbit of Neptune to six billion miles from Sun.
Oort Cloud
Oort Cloud – One light-year (six trillion miles) from Sun.

Composition
Parts of a Comet
Composed of ice, frozen ammonia, rocks, and dust; also known as a “dirty snowball.”
Coma – Gases that vaporize and surround the nucleus as the comet gets close to the Sun.
Nucleus – The actual comet; the “dirty snowball.”
Tail – Made of dust particles and gases pushed away from the comet by the solar wind; always points away from the Sun.
Seen with a
Telescope?
Most comets are faint, so a telescope is needed to see them. A few comets are bright enough that they can be seen without use of a telescope.

Location Asteroids are located in the Asteroid Belt. The Asteroid Belt is found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Composition
Number
Shape
Size range
Asteroids are rocky worlds. Many asteroids also contain iron as well as rocks.
Estimates range from 500,000 to millions.
Asteroids have an irregular shape.
From a few feet (size of a boulder) to about 350 miles.

Definition
Size
Composition
Meteoroid – A rocky body that is found in outer space, moving around the Solar System.
Meteor – The rocky body when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It looks like a streak in the sky; it lasts about a second or two.
Meteorite – The rocky body if it is large enough to hit the surface of a planet.
Most are the size of dust particles to small boulders.
Are rocky, stony, or rocky/iron in composition.
Iron Meteorite Stony Meteorite Iron Meteorite
Meteor Meteoroid Meteor