Our Solar System isn’t just made up of planets, dwarf planets, and moons. There are lots of other objects that make up the Solar System family. Comets and asteroids have existed since the Solar System formed, and both have hit Earth in the past. There are also smaller bits of rock and dust, called meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.
Asteroid
An asteroid is a rocky object that orbits the Sun. they are much smaller than planets. Some are less than 1 km (0.6 miles) wide.
Meteoroid
A small piece of rock or space dust that has broken off an asteroid or comet is called a meteoroid.
Meteor
A meteoroid that burns up as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere is called a meteor. They are also known as “shooting stars”.
Meteorite
If the meteor makes it to the ground it is called a meteorite.
Comets
Made from rock, ice and dust, comets are the size of mountains. There are thousands of billions of comets in our Solar System.
Orbiting the Sun
Comets travel around the Sun in an oval-shaped orbit. Some comets are so far away they take tens of millions of years to orbit the Sun. comets get tails when they pass near the Sun and are heated up. The tails always point away from the Sun.
Death of the dinosaurs
Every day around 90 tonnes (100 tons) of rock and dust from space smashes into the Earth. Most of it burns up in the atmosphere, but larger objects can reach the ground. Scientists think a meteorite about 10 km (6 miles) wide hit into the Earth about 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs.
Picture Credit : Google