Notable comets, asteroids, and near-Earth objects, and the difference between comets, asteroids, and meteoroids. Front: the object or term. Back: a one to two sentence explanation.
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- Comet
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A small icy body in space that develops a glowing tail of gas and dust when passing near the sun.- Asteroid
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A small rocky body orbiting the sun, typically found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.- Meteoroid
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A small particle of dust or rock traveling through space, smaller than an asteroid.- Meteor
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A meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up, creating a bright streak of light.- Meteorite
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A meteor that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and lands on the surface.- Halley's Comet
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A periodic comet that returns to Earth's vicinity every 75 to 76 years, last visible in 1986.- Hale-Bopp
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A bright comet visible to the naked eye during 1997, with an exceptionally long observation period of 18 months.- Hyakutake Comet
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A comet that passed close to Earth in 1996 and briefly became brighter than Polaris, the North Star.- Shoemaker-Levy 9
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A comet that broke into fragments and collided with Jupiter in 1994, creating visible impact scars in the atmosphere.- NEOWISE
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A comet discovered in March 2020 that became visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere during July and August 2020.- Comet Wild 2
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A comet whose nucleus was visited and photographed by the NASA Stardust spacecraft in January 2006.- Comet Lovejoy
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A comet discovered in 2011 that survived passing through the sun's corona and remained visible to the naked eye.- Ceres
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The largest object in the asteroid belt, classified as a dwarf planet, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.- Vesta
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The second-largest asteroid in the belt, sometimes visible to the naked eye and extensively studied by the Dawn spacecraft.- Pallas
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The third-largest asteroid in the belt, notable for its large axial tilt and highly irregular shape.
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