If you didn't know: what is the difference between a comet and an asteroid?
Source:
In our Solar system there are many things that revolve around the Sun — that is, are in his orbit. The earth goes around the Sun for 365 days. Seven other planets also go around the Sun together with its satellites, and together with them and other things, including asteroids and comets. But what is actually asteroids and comets? Why do people confuse them? Fell — star, an asteroid or a comet? How to explain to a child what is a comet and an asteroid, how do they differ? Let's face it.
The Asteroid is just a rock orbiting the Sun. Asteroids are smaller planets, but some of them can be very large. The biggest, according to scientists, this is Vesta — more than 550 kilometers in diameter. The smallest ever studied were in two-meter.
theas in Solar system asteroids?
In our system 780 290 asteroids, but not all of them are made from the same material. Scientists have divided them into three different groups depending on the composition they may be metallic, rocky or consist of species that are more similar to clay or contain silicon.
We are still trying to learn more about asteroids. Japanese probe "Hayabusa-2" arrived at the asteroid Ryugu. The mission of the NASA OSIRIS-REx is on its way to another asteroid — Bennu. Each mission will take a sample from the asteroid's surface and bring back dust and rocks on the Ground.
The"Hayabusa-2" have already done a lot of measurements at Ryugu. The spacecraft is circling around the asteroid had already sent three cars to the surface. One of the cars — lander which is not very moved and explored the surface for 17 hours. Scientists on Earth are already investigating the measurement module, to find out more about how you formed this asteroid. Two other machines are much smaller and designed to move on the surface by jumping. They explore the asteroid from September 21.
The Asteroids are cool.
theBut what exactly is comet?
In the Solar system known comets are much smaller than asteroids — 3526.
The Comet, unlike the asteroid, more like dirty ice than stone. The middle of the comet, called the nucleus, is rather small and remains fixed, passing through the outer limits of the Solar system. The comets usually orbit away from the Sun, where it's much colder than closer to the Ground. Sometimes comets get near the Sun in orbits.
Approaching the Sun, the comet heats up, heats the ice and begins to flow steam, creating a cloud of gas and dust that follow the comet nucleus. This coma — fluffy tail of a comet. As the movement of the comet dust and gas are behind it, creating a tail that can stretch for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Closer to the Ground the tail looks bright stripe in the sky. It happens not often, but when happens — it looks amazing. People around the world watched the comet for thousands of years.
Basically, we are anywhere near the comets. The Stardust mission flew through the tail of one comet and brought to Earth samples in 2006. The mission of "Rosetta", which ended in 2016, shot over 100 000 amazing photographs of the surface of the comet.
Although close to the Ground rushes several comets every year, many of them can only be seen through a telescope. When the comet has a coma is so bright that you can see with your own eyes, it's a real holiday.
So, what's the main difference between comets and asteroids — the asteroid is composed of rock or metals, and the comet from the frozen material that melts when approaching the Sun.
Did you know? Tell us in our
Recommended
Can genes create the perfect diet for you?
Diet on genotype can be a way out for many, but it still has a lot of questions Don't know what to do to lose weight? DNA tests promise to help you with this. They will be able to develop the most individual diet, because for this they will use the m...
How many extraterrestrial civilizations can exist nearby?
If aliens exist, why don't we "hear" them? In the 12th episode of Cosmos, which aired on December 14, 1980, co-author and host Carl Sagan introduced viewers to the same equation of astronomer Frank Drake. Using it, he calculated the potential number ...
Why does the most poisonous plant in the world cause severe pain?
The pain caused to humans by the Gimpi-gympie plant can drive him crazy Many people consider Australia a very dangerous place full of poisonous creatures. And this is a perfectly correct idea, because this continent literally wants to kill everyone w...
Related News
Could a Large Gap to cause a new Big Bang?
There are several issues that will not allow us to sleep at night, and they relate to the ultimate destiny of the whole cosmos. The stars light up, replace them with new, they too fade, and all is repeated until the Universe runs ...
Confirmed: the Earth's inner core solid
a New study conducted by researchers from the Australian national University (ANU) can help us understand how our planet was formed. Associate Professor, Hrvoje, Tkalcic and Dr. Thanh-Pham Sleep sure that proved that the Earth's i...
Scientists have shown what happens when a drone will collide with a plane
a Team of scientists from the research Institute of the University of Daytona has created a video, which showed what can happen with the aircraft when it collides with an unmanned aerial vehicle, or simply a drone. The results of ...
Imaging proved that dogs really do understand human speech
dog Owners surely at least once it seemed that their Pets understand the meaning of certain words. There is a high probability that these guesses were true — a study by researchers from Emory University have proved that dogs can a...
Astronomers have discovered the largest and heaviest object in the early Universe
Scientists from the National astrophysics Institute of Italy in Bologna to announce the opening of the largest and the heaviest of the object of the early Universe – a huge superclusters of galaxies located 11 billion light-years ...
Adequate consumption of vitamins and minerals can ensure a healthy longevity
According to scientists from the research Institute at children's hospital in Oakland (USA), published in the journal MedicalXpress, about 70% of the population of most developed countries having problems with food, have a lack of...
Scientists have recorded the eerie "singing" of the Antarctic Ross ice shelf
Scientists call it "singing", but our hearing is produced by the Antarctic glacier sounds more like the soundtrack to the denouement of some horror movie. Researchers from the American geophysical Union, recorded this creepy buzz,...
Astronomers have discovered a unique planetary system in the constellation Taurus
About 500 light years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus is a very strange planetary system CI Tau. Astronomers at Cambridge University have found in it four huge gas giant, comparable to our Jupiter and Saturn. What makes ...
Scientists: 2099 beer will become a scarce drink
it is believed that climate change could deprive humanity of many food products. Scientists already there are fears that in the future the Earth will become unsuitable for the growth of some plants, and people become unavailable c...
Why do we need to train the brain
Many people say that the brain needs exercise — they say, he's works great. And understanding, unfortunately, comes too late, when the outbreak of the aging process information is not extracted as easily as before, there is ...
"Liver on a chip" — the perfect test environment to test CRISPR
the Most famous not today editor CRISPR genome have already proved their effectiveness. However, the technology is quite young and requires further study the effects on living organisms. Traditionally CRISPR tested on animals or h...
RNA was much more important than we thought
well-Known information about the structure of our body suggests that the main function of all vital processes is DNA. RNA is considered a "support structure", which is involved in encoding, recording, transmitting information and ...
In Italy, the burial was found "Vampire of Lugnano"
In ancient times there was a very strange and even horrific tradition. For example, in 2016 in Kabardino-Balkaria was excavated the skeleton of a 16-year-old girl during the first century of our era with . The archaeologists expla...
Mathematics confirmed the possibility of data transfer with the help of gravitational waves
Mathematicians have analyzed the properties of gravitational waves in the General affine-metric space (algebraic structures acting on the concepts of vector and point) is similar to the properties of electromagnetic waves in Minko...
The invention of the ancient Egyptians will help to do without air conditioning
Technology of ancient Egypt is shrouded in mystery and studied so far. For example, in August of 2018, scientists have discovered that the Great pyramid of Giza is able to . It is also known that the Egyptians were the first who s...
Another silent NASA telescope in orbit
the Next space telescope, NASA stopped work and halted scientific observations. Less than a week after the Hubble space telescope went offline, x-ray Observatory Chandra followed him. On Friday, NASA announced that the Chandra is ...
Environmentalists believe that the modern lawn more harm than good
a Group of local environmentalists, one from Australia, one from Sweden, outlined in a paper published in the journal Science, his view of the modern rethinking of the lawn. In his work Maria Ignatieva and Marcus Hedblom note that...
Published another suicide work of Stephen Hawking
In may this year on the publication of the work of Stephen Hawking, in which he considered the nature of our Universe and called it part of a larger Multiverse. The article was written in collaboration with a Belgian colleague Tho...
Scientists have found a method of growing artificial retina
at today's level of medicine we can grow a variety of tissues for transplant. But the problem is that this applies mostly only to a fairly "simply" arranged tissues like skin, bones or muscles. And the more complex the device has ...
Astronomers first witnessed the birth of a system of binary neutron stars
the Completion of the life cycle of stars can occur in different ways. Some turn into black holes, others are scattered in the nebula. If the star had a very large mass, at her death, the light may appear to be a neutron star – a ...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!