What is the difference between comets asteroids and meteors?
Asteroids are planets that are too small to be called planets. The name means starlike, which is silly. They seem mostly to be rocky, and rather irregular in shape. The majority of them live in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in, wait for it, the Asteroid Belt, and most have fairly regular shaped orbits. Some are a bit off centre, though, and one or two way off centre. Comets tend to travel between way out into space and quite close in to the Sun. Their orbits are not roundish like most of the planets and asteroids. They consist of (probably) a small rocky core with a deepish icy coating. This seems to melt off as the comet comes in from the cold, and this gives the tail, which always points away from the Sun. Meteors and meteorites are small (mostly – some are rather large) bits of rocky stuff that actually meet up with us, and come off worst. Shooting stars are meteors or meteorites coming through the Earth’s atmosphere and getting rather hot as they do. If they burn up comple
