How do Asteroids, Meteroids, Meteorites, Meteors and Comets differ?

Do you ever get confused between Asteroids, Meteoroids, Meteorites, Meteors and Comets ?

Let's find out the exact difference between them.....

At first we will discuss about asteroids and meteoroids

Asteroids- Basically, asteroids are the rocky worlds orbiting around the sun. They are too small to be called as planets. They are also called as minor planets or planetoids. They don't have atmospheres, but about 150 asteroids are known to have small "moons" orbiting them, and some even have two moons.

Asteroid

There are also binary (double) asteroids, where two rocky bodies of roughly equal size orbit each other, as well as triple asteroid systems.

Binary Asteroids

The majority of known asteroids are in the asteroid belt, a large donut-shaped ring located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some scientists estimate the asteroid belt has between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter, and millions of smaller ones.

Asteroid Belt

Asteroids have a few different classifications based on their location and make-up. Location classifications are:

1. Main Belt Asteroids

2. Trojans

3. Near Earth Asteroids

Now, let's find out what exactly are meteoroids.

Meteoroids- Generally speaking, meteoroids are all the smaller objects in orbit around the Sun. They are smaller than asteroids. Other meteoroids are basically small asteroids. There is no exact diameter that distinguishes an asteroid from a meteoroid. Wikipedia states 10 metres; other trustworthy sites call anything smaller than 1 km diameter is a meteoroid. In fact, they are the debris and smaller fragments that have broken off from asteroids.

Then what exactly are Meteorites and Meteors?

Meteors-  A meteor is the streak of light (which we call a shooting star) that you see in the sky when a small piece of meteoroid enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up completely before reaching the Earth's surface because of the frictional heating from the piece’s collision with the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.

  

Shooting Star

 Meteorite- In some cases, however, the meteoroid does not completely burn up, and the object actually reaches to Earth’s surface. The chunk that has survived its blazing journey is called a meteorite. 

Meteorite Hole

So we can conclude that- A small body starts its life as a meteoroid floating through space between the planets until it makes a bright streak of light in Earth’s atmosphere as a meteor and then, if it isn’t consumed by frictional heating, finally lands on the ground as a meteorite.

Meteoroid -> Meteor -> Meteorite 

And, what about comets?

Comets- Unlike the first four, these aren't solid rocks! Comets are the frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock and ices. When comets pass by very close to the sun, they heat up and begin to vaporise leaving a trail behind. This is known as the Comet's tail and can be millions of kilometres in length. Sometimes, comets are also known as snowballs or icy mudballs.

Comet

Do you know a famous comet that is visible to the naked eye every 75 years?

Halley's Comet is the most famous comet known to the mankind. This is because it returns to Earth's proximity every 75-76 years, making it possible for a human to see it twice in his/her lifetime. The last time it was seen in 1986 and it is expected to be seen in 2061 next.

Halley's Comet

That's all for this post.