OUR ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
What's the difference between meteors and comets?
What are comets? (The Basics) Comets are peices of leftover rock, ice, and dust. They were originally part of a nebula, which forms when a star explodes into a supernova. A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust. It can be a very bright patch of color or a dark shadow.
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Did you know? A comet's tail can be behind or in front of the comet, it all depends on where the sun is.
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What is a meteor? (The Basics) Meteors are very much like comets. They are peices of rock that fly through space. Meteors are smaller pieces of rock that fall off from enormous asteroids! The bigger the meteor, the faster it flies. Meteors can do alot of damage here on Earth, but that's only when they come crashing through our atmosphere. Luckily, that doesn't happen very often!
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Interesting Fact: Meteors explode when they hit our atmosphere. The very loud sound we hear when meteors come down to Earth is the meteor entering our atmosphere. The atmosphere is like an invisible brick wall surrounding Earth. Imagine a rock the size of a school bus... or an apartment building crashing through a giant brick wall! How loud would that be?
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