Asteroids, Comets & Meteors - NASA Solar System Exploration
Our solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and meteors – pack big surprises. These chunks of rock, ice, and metal are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
In Depth | 1P/Halley – NASA Solar System Exploration
Halley is often called the most famous comet because it marked the first time astronomers understood comets could be repeat visitors to our night skies. Astronomers have now linked the comet's …
In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration
Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; …
In 1950, astronomer Jan Oort proposed that certain comets come from a vast, extremely distant spherical shell of icy bodies surrounding the solar system. This giant swarm of objects, now named …
In Depth | Earth's Moon – NASA Solar System Exploration
With too sparse an atmosphere to impede impacts, a steady rain of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets strikes the surface of the Moon, leaving numerous craters behind.
In Depth | Kuiper Belt – NASA Solar System Exploration
Researchers have found that some near-Earth asteroids are actually burned-out comets, and most of them would have started out in the Kuiper Belt. Many comets crash into the Sun or the planets.
Psyche Raw Image: Imager B - NASA Solar System Exploration
BY DESTINATION Earth (1) Mars (2) Jupiter (95) Saturn (83) Uranus (27) Neptune (14) Pluto (5) Asteroids, Comets & Meteors About Asteroids, Comets & Meteors BY TYPE Meteors & Meteorites …
Directory - NASA Solar System Exploration
Oct 21, 2025 · About Moons BY DESTINATION Earth (1) Mars (2) Jupiter (95) Saturn (83) Uranus (27) Neptune (14) Pluto (5) Asteroids, Comets & Meteors About Asteroids, Comets & Meteors BY TYPE …
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) - NASA Solar System Exploration
Comets are usually named for their discoverer (s) or for the name of the observatory/telescope used in the discovery. Since both Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered this comet it is named for them.
In Depth | 21P/Giacobini-Zinner – NASA Solar System Exploration
Comets are usually named for their discoverer (s) or for the name of the observatory/telescope used in the discovery. Since both Michel Giacobini and Ernst Zinner discovered and recovered this comet it …