1) The document discusses various celestial objects that orbit the sun including meteors, meteorites, asteroids, and comets. It provides definitions and descriptions of each object. 2) Key differences are outlined, such as meteoroids become meteors when entering the earth's atmosphere, and meteorites are meteors that survive impact and land on earth. Asteroids orbit mainly between Mars and Jupiter, while comets have more elliptical orbits and tails when near the sun. 3) Examples of significant meteors, asteroids, and comets are mentioned, including Comet Hale-Bopp which was exceptionally large and the longest observed comet.

1. Portfolio Presentation Submitted by: Carlotta Magnaye

3. Meteoroids are flying in space, meteors are falling through the atmosphere (thus "meteor" shower) and meteorite is a rock that's survived entry into the atmosphere.

7. Most asteroid orbits are more elliptical and inclined to the plane of the ecliptic than the orbits of major planets. A number of small asteroids (Amor objects) cross, but do not intersect, the orbit of Mars, and a few even cross the Earth's orbit (Apollo objects) or orbit inside the Earth's orbit (Aten objects).

10. Comets One of the major types of objects that move in closed orbits around the Sun. Compared to the orbits of planets and asteroids, comet orbits are more eccentric and have a much greater range of inclinations to the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). Physically, a comet is a small, solid body which is roughly 2 mi (3 km) in diameter, contains a high fraction of icy substances, and shows a complex morphology, often including the production of an extensive atmosphere and tail, as it approaches the Sun.

11. Why do comets have tails? Gas and dust are forced away from them by solar wind. Any of a class of small icy objects orbiting the Sun and developing diffuse gaseous envelopes and often long glowing tails when near the Sun. They are distinguished from other objects in the solar system by their composition, hazy appearance, and elongated orbits. Most comets originate in the Oort cloud or in the Kuiper belt. Other bodies' gravity can alter their orbits, causing them to pass close to the Sun. Short-period comets return in 200 years or less, others in thousands of years or not at all. A comet typically consists of a small, irregular nucleus, often described as a "dirty snowball," with dust and other materials frozen in water mixed with volatile compounds. When one nears the Sun, the heat vaporizes its surface, releasing gases and dust particles, which form a cloud (coma) around the nucleus. Material in the coma may be pushed away from the Sun by its radiation and the solar wind, forming one or more tails. Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through dust left by the passage of a comet.

12. Composition of comets Comets may be composed of many different things depending on their origins, but many contain large quantities of ice. Of the other contents, there may be metals such as iron, iridium, and other minerals. Trapped in the ice, moreover, there may be samples of gasses, if the comet came from some planetary form or if it passed through a gaseous cloud. The tail of the comet is simply a stream of evaporating water and gasses from its surface.