ASTEROIDS,COMETS AND METEORS

                 ASTEROIDS,COMETS AND METEORS 

[visib meteror  showers ]
QUADRANTIDS Peak January 3, in constellation Boötes
 DELTA AQUARIDS Peak July 29, in Aquarius
 CAPRICORNIDS Peak July 30, in Capricorn
 PERSEIDS Peak August 12,in perseus
ORIONID Peak October 21, in Orion
GEMINIDS Peak December 4, in Gemini 
 


 A steroids, comets, and meteors are forms of interplanetary debris-rocky and icy fragments left from the formation of the solar system. They usually travel at a great distance from Earth but we see them, even with the naked eye, when they near our planet. 
         Millions of asteroids orbit the sun, usually in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. A few brush past the planet Earth. Generally larger in the Kuiper belt. As comets journey toward the sun, they begin to de- frost. Solar heat vaporizes ice, which forms a halo of gas and dust, called than comets and meteors, asteroids a coma, around the comet's nucleus Approaching Mars, comets may form tails, some hundreds of millions of miles long. are chunks of rock and metal that can range from 100 yards to almost 600 miles in width. Comets, sometimes likened to big, dirty snowballs, rock, ice, dust, carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases. in the Kuiper belt. As comets journey toward the sun, they begin to defrost. Solar heat vaporizes ice, which forms a halo of gas and dust, called a coma, around the comet's nucleus. Approaching Mars, comets may form tails, some hundreds of millions of miles long. Meteors, more commonly from Earth than asteroids or comets are known to most as shooting stars but they are actually not stars at all.