Comets and meteors!

All the shooting stars are so philosophical and romantic, we pray every time they fall. In the hope, may our wishes come true in life.

| Fire from the sky |

In earlier days, people feared meteorites for centuries. Some saw them as fiery dragons, others as weapons sent by some angry gods. But now we are way smarter than those people right? Let's take a tour of the understanding of these objects closely.

In between the planets, space isn’t empty. there is gas, dust, rocks called asteroids, and even comets- which can be thought of as a small snowball. Some comets are so small you wouldn't see them. But some are even the size of an island.

| Meteor |

When pieces of comet burn up in the earth's atmosphere, they produce meteor showers, and bright shooting stars race across the night sky, as in this picture of Leonid meteors.

They are known as shooting stars too. This phenomenon takes place about 90km above the planet's surface.

| Meteorites |

If this meteor smashes into the earth, it is called a meteorite.

A cut and polished slice of the Esquel meteorite, a stony-iron pallasite. Yellow-green olivine crystals are encased in the iron-nickel matrix.

| Why do we see different colors in the meteors |

We see color due to the chemical composition present in the meteor. When the meteor is red it has high iron content present in it. While a meteor in the color purple will have a high content of calcium.

| Meteor showers |

A meteor shower an event where usually, just a few meteors are visible over an hour, but sometimes the sky is filled with lights that look like heavenly fireworks. These meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet. You would never want to miss it.

| Why does a comet look like it has a tail? |

If a comet's orbit takes it close to the sun, its surface begins to evaporate, releasing gas and dust. This results in a spectacular tail pointing away from the sun. we can see two colors in the tail. The yellow or white part is made up of dust. And blue streaks are made up of gas. This tail can extend up to million of kilometers isn’t that surprising?

| Differences between comets and meteors |

While both comets and meteors are celestial bodies that originate from space, there are several key differences between them.

Firstly, comets are much larger than meteors. A typical comet can be several kilometers in diameter, while meteors are usually no larger than a few millimeters.

| Famous Halleys Comet |

Comets often reappear at regular intervals as they travel past the Earth. One of the most famous Halley’s comet returns every 75 or 76 years. It has been named after the astronomer Edmund Halley who predicted it would return in 1758. It travels up to 2,40,000km/h.