1. Small Bodies in Space

2. Comets
Defined:
a small body of ice, rock and dust that follows an elliptical orbit around the sun and that gives off gas and dust in the form of a tail as it passes close to the sun.
Formed: In the cold outer solar system 4.6 billion years ago (BYA)
Tail: 2- and ion and a dust, caused by melting when close to the sun
Found: Mainly in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt
Size: ½ km to 100 km in diameter

3. Comets appear much larger, longer, and brighter in the sky
They can even been seen during the day.

4. Tails direction as the comet orbits the sun.
Where the Oort Cloud is…
Location of the Kuiper Belt

5. Asteroids a small rocky object that orbits the sun Defined:
Formed: left over from solar system 4.6 billion years ago (BYA)
Found: Mainly in the ASTEROID BELT, between Mars and Jupiter ~200,000
Size: most are small less than 1 km to about 600 km in diameter

6. The Asteroid Belt

7. Those M words:
They are all the same thing, the difference is where they are!
Meteoroid: small rocky body traveling IN SPACE.
Meteor: Meteoroid burning up IN THE ATMOSPHERE.
Meteorite: a meteoroid that reaches the EARTH’S SURFACE.
Size: ranges from grain of sand to large boulder.
Meteors are sometimes called shooting stars. They last for only a few seconds and hit the Earth everyday.