Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors

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

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

A meteor when it burns in the atmosphere is also known as a ____.

• rock

• shooting star

• ball of ice

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS1-2

What do comets, asteroids and meteors all have in common?

• They all are made of ice
• They all hit Earth's surface
• They all orbit the sun
• They have nothing in common

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-3

When objects strike the surface of a planet or moon, they leave a deep impression on the surface called a:

• Pothole 
• Crater
• Canyon
• Plateau

Where are Asteroids found in the Solar System?

• Between Earth and Mars
• In the Oort Cloud beyond Neptune
• In the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter
• Close to the Sun

Where do most comets come from?

• In the Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud beyond Neptune's orbit

• In the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter

• Near the Sun

• Earth's atmosphere

Meteorites...

•  hit the ground
• burn up completely in the atmosphere
• debris from asteroids/comets that float around in space

As comets approach the sun they travel faster and have:

• shorter tails

• medium tails

• longer tails

• no tails due to solar winds