Trivia and Facts | Earthscience

Comets

Because of their composition, comets are also called “dirty snowballs” or “cosmic snowballs”
Just like how the planets orbit the sun, comets take an elliptical path as well.
The total mass of a comet is majority from its nucleus.
Comet’s coma, a halo, is formed when comets take a closer movement to the sun.
The area of origin of comets are believed to come from two regions which are the Oort Cloud or the Kuiper Belt found beyond Neptune’s and Pluto’s orbit.
Halley’s Comet, named after Edmond Halley who was a British astronomer, is the most famous known comet which has been observed starting 240 BC and can be visible from our planet for every 76 years.
Comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake, discovered in 1995 and 1996 respectively, were also considered as notable comets in history.
Where are over 3,000 currently known comets, scientists and astronomers believe that the solar system has up to one billion comets that exists.
A great comet, which can happen for every ten years, is a comet that can be seen from Earth without using a telescope because of its enough brightness.

When our planet moves through the debris stream of a comet that is orbiting, meteor showers occur.
Dust and debris from Halley’s Comet cause the yearly late October Orionid Meteor Shower.
According to studies, there is an average of 0.0055 per year or a once in every 180 years estimated chances that a person would be hit by a meteorite. Meaning, since Ann Hodges was the only confirmed individual who experienced this in 1954, there will be no person to be struck until 2134.
The earliest recorded and observed meteor show in history was found in Chinese annals in 36 AD.
Hours in early morning with the presence of a dark and moonless sky is the best time to watch a meteor shower. Some, like the Leonid meteor shower, are best viewed in the North.

Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the very first asteroid recorded, Ceres, in 1801 which happen to be the largest known asteroid ever recorded.
There are currently over 600,000 known asteroids in our solar system.
Asteroid Belt is the location in the solar system, found between orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where most asteroids are found.
Meaning “star like,” famous astronomer William Herschel first coined the term “asteroid” in 1802.
Only 6-foot-wide (2 meters) across, 2015 TC25 is the smallest asteroid ever studied.
Asteroids called Apollo objects have orbits that crosses Earth’s orbit.
According to scientists, the domino effect that led to the extinction of dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago, was caused by an asteroid impact.
Some asteroids are blown out comets. When the ice is gone, all that remains is the rocky material.
One a year, a piece of asteroid which happen to be a size of a car, falls into the atmosphere of our planet which creates a bright fireball effect, however, is most of the time burns up before striking the ground.