Comets, Meteors, Asteroids

What is a meteor?

• A star moving quickly across the sky

• A piece of space rock burning up in Earth’s atmosphere

• A piece of the Sun heading for Earth

• A piece of rock on space

Every comet has one tail.

• TRUE

• FALSE

When a meteoroid STRIKES the surface of the earth scientists refer to them as: ___

• Asteroids

• Comets

• Meteors

• Meteorites

Whose orbit (ellipse) moves the furthest away from the sun and sometimes past Neptune?

• Comets

• Asteoroids

What happens to a comet as it gets close to the Sun?

• It forms long tails made of gas and dust

• It melts and disappears

• It explodes

Sometimes I am called a "dirty snowball". I have a hydrogen cloud, coma, and a nucleus. I am invisible except when near the sun. What am I?

• Asteroid

• Star

• Meteor

• Comet

Which is found in the belt between Mars and Jupiter

• Comets

• Asteroids

• Meteors

• Stars

The tail of a comet usually faces

• toward the sun

• toward the Earth

• away from the Sun

• away from the Earth

I am a rock entering a planet's atmosphere.

• meteor

• moon

• asteroid

• comet

The shape of comet's paths are ________________.

• circular

• elliptical

• irregular