Question

Distinguish between the following:

Comets and asteroids

Answer 1

Distinguished between Comets and Asteroids:

1) The biggest difference between comets and asteroids is what they are made of. While asteroids consist of metals and rocky material, comets are made up of ice, dust, rocky materials and organic compounds.

2) Some scientists think asteroids formed much closer to the Sun, where it was too warm for any ices to remain solid, while comets formed farther from the Sun and were, therefore, able to retain ice.

3) When comets approach the Sun, some of their ices melt. This causes another notable difference between asteroids and comets: comets have “tails” while asteroids generally don’t.

4) Another difference between asteroids and comets is in their orbital patterns. Asteroids tend to have shorter, more circular orbits. Comets tend to have very extended and elongated orbits, which often exceed 50,000 AU from the Sun.

5) Astronomers have discovered millions of asteroids – some as small as dust particles and others measuring hundreds of kilometers across. But as of this writing, astronomers have found only about 4,000 comets.