Does anyone Know The Difference?

Question

What's the difference between a comet and an Asteroid? Are they the same? Are they stars?

Answer 1

Comets are balls of ice and dust that form coma and tails when they orbit close to the sun. Their orbits put them very close to the sun at times, and completely out of the solar system at others.
Asteroids do not have as much ice, and are usually rockier. They tend to be grouped in belts like the Keiper Belt, and follow more elliptical orbits.
Neither comets nor asteroids are stars.

Answer 2

No, they're not stars. A comet is a large ball of frozen gas that travels in a very large elliptical orbit around the Sun. During the portion of its orbit that brings it close to the Sun, some of the gas is 'thawed' and forms the distinctive 'tail' of a comet as it reflects sunlight.

An 'asteroid' is, basically, a chunck of rock. Most of them travel in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter. It is thought that there was once a planet in that orbit but that the pull of Jupiters gravitation caused it to break apart to form the 'asteroid belt' (as it's called)

Stars are just like our Sun. Huge balls of (mostly) hydrogen gas undergoing fusion reactions to generate heat and light. They are far away from our solar system. The nearest one is a bit over 4 light years away. (This means that, travelling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it would take a bit over 4 years to get to it ☺)

Hope that helps.


Doug

Answer 3

A comet is a small body in the solar system that orbits the Sun and (at least occasionally) exhibits a coma (or atmosphere) and/or a tail — both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comet's nucleus, which itself is a minor body composed of rock, dust, and ices. Comets' orbits are constantly changing: their origins are in the outer solar system, and they have a propensity to be highly affected (or perturbed) by relatively close approaches to the major planets. Some are moved into sungrazing orbits that destroy the comets when they near the Sun, while others are thrown out of the solar system forever.

Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical object. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies that drift in the solar system in orbit around the Sun. Asteroid (Greek for "star-like") is the word used most in the English literature for minor planets, which has been the term preferred by the International Astronomical Union; some other languages prefer planetoid (Greek: "planet-like"), because it more accurately describes what they are. In late August 2006, the IAU introduced the term "small solar system bodies" (SSSBs), which includes most objects thusfar classified as minor planets, as well as comets. At the same time they introduced the term dwarf planet for the largest minor planets. This article deals specifically with the minor planets that orbit in the inner solar system (roughly up to the orbit of Jupiter). For other types of objects, such as comets, Trans-Neptunian objects, and Centaurs, see Small solar system body.

Answer 4

The differences are minute yet they are confusing.

Comets: They are bodies present in found beyond pluto. Their collection is called the oort cloud. They orbit the sun in eliptical paths ,that is somewhat like cutting the paths of the planets vertically, and their tail always points away from the sun. But they are not i repeat not at all parts of a planet or any star. Instead they are formed from the nebula due to which a star is created.

Asteroid:The are rocks orbiting the sun in an earth like orbit and are chunks of rocks from a planet They do not have a tail like comets although it appears to have a tail when it enters the atmosphere of earth but comets have a tail made up of gas and dunt and icy particles which can be seen even outside earths atmosphere.

Answer 5

i think the names came up, cause we first saw the sun (that wasn't very tricky), then we assumed that the sun is a star, and there are many of them, not moving in the skies, then comets because WOW .. they are really special, then we developped telescopes and saw asteroids, and started to figure trajectories.
we put names to it, making a comet a body travelling in an orbit near and around the sun.
and asteroids bodies which are more or less lazy drifting around somewhere without looking that much sensational.

So i think the difference mankind defined is like:
comet:
spectacular gas and ice emitting icy dirtball most probably often in an excentric orbit, sometimes to be seen just once
asteroid:
icy dirtball in any orbit without looking that much sensational cause it does not eject observable masses of gas and/or dust
and is not in a stable orbit around a planet
star:
sun-like object in the skies appearing like a small dot, cause of its distance, not really comparable to comets and asteroids, appears not to move at all, especially not around the sun

Answer 6

A comet is basically an asteroid that is in a very eccentric orbit and that has enough volatile elements (water, various gasses) to evaporate and make a cloud when it gets near the Sun in its eccentric orbit.

Answer 7

nonot the same and not stars. a comet is a ball of ice and rock that makes a vary wide orbit arouind a star. and asteroid is usually just rock (by defenition) and orbits very slowly, and usually in big clusters