Only asteroids collide with Earth.
Comets are balls of ice and dust.
Most of the trillions of comets in our solar system have tails.
All asteroids lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
There are about 1 million known asteroids in the solar system.
Asteroids are made of rocky material. Comets are made of icy material.
Asteroids are made of icy material. Comets are made of rocky material.
Asteroids and comets are both made of rocky and icy material, but asteroids are larger in size than comets.
Asteroids and comets are both made of rocky and icy material, but asteroids are smaller in size than comets.
A comet.
A meteor.
An asteroid.
A meteorite.
Possibly any of the above
Asteroids formed inside the frost line, while comets formed outside.
Asteroids and comets formed at different times.
Comets formed from the jovian nebula, while asteroids did not.
Comets are much larger than asteroids.
Asteroids are much larger than comets.
1 hundred km
1 thousand km
10 thousand km
1 million km
10 million km
The strength of gravity on small asteroids is less than the strength of the rock.
Small asteroids have odd shapes because they were all chipped off larger objects.
Large asteroids were once molten and therefore became spherical, but small asteroids were never molten.
Large asteroids became spherical because many small collisions chipped off pieces until only a sphere was left; this did not occur with small asteroids.
A streak of light caused by a star moving across the sky
A streak of light caused by a small particle from space burning up in Earth's atmosphere
A fragment of an asteroid from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface
A small moon that orbits one of the giant planets
A comet that burns up in Earth's atmosphere
Leftover chunks of rock from the earliest period in the formation of the solar system.
Pieces of comets rather than of asteroids.
Chunks of a larger asteroid that was shattered by a collision.
Chunks of rock chipped off the planet Mercury.
Chunks of rock chipped off the planet Mars.
The solar wind blows the ions directly away from the Sun.
Radiation pressure from the Sun's light pushes the ions away.
The conservation of the angular momentum of the tail keeps it always pointing away from the Sun.
Gases from the comet, heated by the Sun, push the tail away from the Sun.
It is allergic to sunlight.
Come from the asteroid belt.
Come from the Kuiper belt.
Come from the Oort cloud.
Are Trojan comets.
Are captured by Jupiter.
It is material left over from the interstellar cloud that never contracted with the rest of the gases to form the solar nebula.
It is made of planetesimals that formed beyond Neptune's orbit and never accreted to form a planet.
It consists of objects that fragmented from the protosun during a catastrophic collision early in the formation of the solar system.
It is made of planetesimals between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter that never formed into a planet.
It is made of planetesimals formed in the outer solar system that were flung into distant orbits by encounters with the jovian planets.
It is material left over from the interstellar cloud that never contracted with the rest of the gases to form the solar nebula.
It is made of planetesimals that formed beyond Neptune's orbit and never accreted to form a planet.
It consists of objects that fragmented from the protosun during a catastrophic collision early in the formation of the solar system.
It is made of planetesimals between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter that never formed into a planet.
It is made of planetesimals formed in the outer solar system that were flung into distant orbits by encounters with the jovian planets.
About 25 years ago
About 75 years ago
About 200 years ago
About 2000 years ago
In ancient history
The asteroid belt.
The Kuiper belt.
The Oort cloud.
The moon system around Neptune.
An extrasolar planetary system.
Pluto
Neptune
An asteroid in the asteroid belt
A comet in the Kuiper belt
A comet in the Oort cloud
Pluto's orbit is completely outside Neptune's orbit.
Pluto's orbit is completely inside Neptune's orbit.
Pluto's orbit never comes anywhere close to Neptune's orbit.
The two planets have an orbital resonance that prevents them from colliding.
It could!
Pluto's largest moon
The largest known asteroid
The largest known comet
One of the Galilean moons of Jupiter
A moon of Neptune
Pluto
Charon
Sedna
Quaoar
Xena
It dredged up material that gave us our first direct look at Jupiter's interior composition.
It wiped out the dinosaurs.
It was the first direct proof that impacts really occur.
It confirmed our theory of solar system formation.
It was the first event in modern history that was brighter than the full moon in the sky.
Once every century
Once every thousand years
Once every million years
Once every hundred million years
Once in Earth's history
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