PPT Slide
The Solar System: Minor Bodies
Meteoroid: A small, extraterrestrial, solid body. Term usually used for bodies smaller than a kilometer, and frequently millimeters, in size. Objects destined to become meteors. Meteors are simply meteoroids that burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Most are too small (millimeters or less in size) to reach the Earth’s surface. Those that do
strike the Earth are called meteorites.
Comets: An ice-rich body in highly eccentric orbits around the Sun, that can emit an observable gaseous/dust halo/tail when ices are warmed by the Sun. Most comets spend their time in the outer Solar System, becoming visible only near the Sun.