Asteroid, meteor, comet, meteorite, what's the difference?

Answer 1

asteroids are objects outside of the atmosphere usually made of dense rock or metal.

Meteors are asteroids that have entered Earth's atmosphere.

Meteorites are rocks or fragments of meteors that have landed on Earth's surface.

Comets are not made of dense rock or metal they are usually balls of frozen gas and dust. They only form tails when they are close enough to the sun that the gas starts to melt from the heat in which case they usually become visible to us.

Answer 2

An asteroid is a rock floating through space and a Comet is made of Ice and dust and when it gets near the sun the ice and dust particles melt and this forms a tail, the sun reflects off the tail and makes a glow that is usually blue.
A meteor is an asteroid that is to collide or has collided or enters or is going to enter the Earth/other planet's atmosphere.
A meteorite is a small meteor from a broken up meteor/asteroid/comet.
Meteorites can be left by a comet/asteroid on it's path or from a asteroid/comet that has broken up in the Earth's thermosphere and atmosphere.

Answer 3

Quick terminology refresher -
'meteoroid' - drifting bit of rock and metal
'meteor' - a meteoroid that's entered Earth's atmosphere
'meteorite' - a meteor that's impacted Earth's surface

There's no definitive distinction between an 'asteroid' and a 'meteoroid,' but an asteroid is generally much larger than a meteoroid, often several miles in diameter, and asteroids have fairly stable orbits in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Most meteoroids are smaller than your fingertip and are bits and pieces that have broken off asteroids that have collided.

Comets are usually much less dense than either asteroids and meteoroids, often described as little more than "dirty snowballs" of dust and gas left over from when the solar system first formed. Most comets originate in an immense shell that surrounds the solar system called the Oort Cloud. Also, unlike asteroids and meteoroids, when a comet enters the inner solar system it develops a very long tail consisting of cometary material that's boiled off by the heat of the sun.

Answer 4

Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive body, composed of rock, carbon or metal, which is orbiting the Sun.

Comet: A relatively small, sometimes active object, which is composed of dirt and ices. Comets are characterised by dust and gas tails when in proximity to the Sun. Far from the Sun it is difficult to distinguish an asteroid from a comet.

Meteoroid: A small particle from an asteroid or comet orbiting he Sun.

Meteor: A meteoroid that is observed as it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere - a shooting star.

Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and impacts the Earth's surface.

Answer 5

An asteroid is like a planet but smaller. When Ceres was discovered between Mars and Jupiter it was considered another planet. Later, when it's small size was realized, a new word was made up, asteroid, to apply to something too small to be a planet, but orbiting much like planets do.

A meteor is a shooting star, a flash of light seen in the sky. I think the term dates to the time when meteorology included not just weather but also meteors and comets (which were then believed to be atmospheric phenomena).

A comet is an asteroid that develops a coma, which is visible cloud around it. Also they are usually in highly eccentric orbits.

Meteorite is a geological term that describes certain kinds of rock you can find on the ground.

And one you didn't ask about is meteoroid, which is something too small to be an asteroid but it orbits like one. It is kind of the same relationship that asteroids have with planets.

Answer 6

Asteroid~
Sometimes called the minor planets. Asteroids range in size from a few feet across, to those that are hundreds of miles in diameter.

Meteor~
Are dust particles and rock fragments from space.

Comet~
"Dirty Snowball" composed of snow and dust.

Meteorite~
Are meteors that have come through the Earth's atmosphere.