Asteroids, meteors and comets: What are the differences?

AccuWeather

Our solar system is full of floating space debris: Comets, meteors, asteroids and more.  What are the differences that make up these various space rocks?

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00:00 [MUSIC]

00:05 Our solar system is full of floating space debris.

00:09 It comes in different forms and different names.

00:12 Asteroids are large chunks of rock that are left over since the beginning of our solar system.

00:17 Most of these rocks orbit in an area between Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt.

00:23 Comets are believed to originate from the Kuiper belt and as far as the Oort cloud.

00:29 They contain ice, methane or ammonia.

00:32 These compounds develop a fuzzy shell called a coma.

00:36 As they travel closer to the sun, tails begin to form.

00:39 When asteroids begin entering Earth's atmosphere, they become meteors.

00:43 Meteors burn up in the atmosphere before reaching Earth's surface.

00:47 You may know them as shooting stars.

00:50 If a meteor survives its descent and lands, it becomes a meteorite.

00:55 For 40 for AccuWeather, I'm Jeff Cornish.

00:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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