EXPLORING OUR UNIVERSE ASTEROIDS COMETS AND METEOROIDS LAUREN KUKLA Checkerboard Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com
MISSION METEORS AND MORE Have you ever seen a meteor streak across the sky Its brief burst of light can be exciting and beautiful Maybe you have even witnessed a meteor shower Comet Dust Meteor showers are caused when Earth passes through comet debris Comets are big dirty snowballs that orbit the sun As a comet gets closer to the sun it heats up The sun's heat causes the ice to disintegrate This releases a trail of rock and dust into space When Earth passes through this trail we experience a meteor shower Meteor Meteoroid or Meteorite Asteroids are rocky bodies that orbit the sun When asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere they burn up in a
The Perseid meteor shower occurs every August It's possible to see up to 100 meteors an hour during the shower bright flash This flash is called a meteor If a large asteroid hits Earth it can cause great destruction But small asteroids rarely cause damage These are called meteoroids Sometimes small pieces of meteoroids land on Earth's surface These are meteorites
