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 | 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.
In Depth | Perseids – NASA Solar System Exploration
When comets come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them. Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate to …
Directory - NASA Solar System Exploration
Oct 21, 2025 · 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 & …
Recent Great Comets - NASA Solar System Exploration
We have been privileged to have recently witnessed two bright comets in consecutive years: Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. As an added bonus, the Comet Shoemaker-Levy …
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 | 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 …
Psyche Raw Image: Imager A - 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 …
Feedback – NASA Solar System Exploration
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 Meteors & …
Pluto By the Numbers - NASA Solar System Exploration
Oct 21, 2025 · Pluto was once our solar system's ninth planet, but has been reclassified as a dwarf planet. It's located in the Kuiper Belt.