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These lists contain the Sun, the planets, dwarf planets, many of the larger small Solar System bodies (which includes the asteroids), all named natural satellites, and a number of smaller objects of historical or scientific interest, such as comets and near-Earth objects.
As space objects go, comets and meteors are not very big. While a planet like Earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and a star like our Sun is about 865,000 miles across, the largest asteroid ...
Very few asteroids with a diameter larger than 100 meters have a rotation period less than 2.2 hours. [86] For asteroids rotating faster than approximately this rate, the inertial force at the surface is greater than the gravitational force, so any loose surface material would be flung out.
Outside the top four, the ranking of all the asteroids is uncertain, as there is a great deal of overlap among the estimates. The largest asteroids with an accurately measured mass, because they have been studied by the probe Dawn, are 1 Ceres with a mass of (939.3 ± 0.5) × 10 18 kg, and 4 Vesta at (259.076 ± 0.001) × 10 18 kg.
Our solar system is full of floating space debris: Comets, meteors, asteroids and more. What are the differences that make up these various space rocks?
Meteors are leftover pieces from broken asteroids and comet particles that spread out in dusty trails orbiting the sun. ... larger particles that linger longer than typical meteor streaks ...
where N (>D) is the expected number of objects larger than a diameter of D meters to hit Earth in a year. [25] This is based on observations of bright meteors seen from the ground and space, combined with surveys of near-Earth asteroids.
A giant meteorite first discovered in 2014 caused a tsunami bigger than any in known human history and may have sparked life, scientists reveal. A giant, ancient meteor four times the size of ...