NASA. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood.
Simulates various solar system views
When I began research for this week's topic, my first quest was learning the difference between an asteroid and a comet. Here's what I discovered. Comets (dirty snowballs) are primarily composed of ice and dust. As they near the sun, the heat melts the co
Asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth are called meteoroids.
"Quick quiz: How many planets orbit our Sun? If you said nine, you're shy by several thousand.
In the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, there are twenty-six asteroids larger than 124 miles in diameter, traveling along with hundreds of thousands of smaller asteroids.
"WARNING ! AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! DEPARTMENT OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA.
Tom Gehrels works the graveyard shift at an observatory in southern Arizona, searching for what he estimates are "1,700 potential Earth-killers in outer space.
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