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On Sat, 27 Mar 1999 you wrote:
> When is the next time an asteroid, which I will be able to see, will appear in
> the sky?
Hello,
If you want to see an asteroid with your naked eye, hope that the answer
here is never! The brightest asteroids are about 10 times too faint to
be seen with your eye. So, if an asteroid became bright enough to be
visible, it would probably be close enough to collide with the Earth!
But several asteroids are visible each month to binoculars and
telescopes. Check out the Sky and Telescope web site at
http://www.skypub.com/ to see what asteroids are currently visible.
> What is the difference between asteroids and meteors?
Meteors are rocks of various sizes, from sand to boulders, that fall
through Earth's atmosphere and burn up. Asteroids are large objects (a
few hundred meters to several hundred miles) across that orbit the sun.
> What causes more damage if it hits the earth, an asteroid or a comet?
It depends. If you talk about a comet and an asteroid of the same
distance across, then the asteroid will do more damage. Asteroids are
large chunks of rock or metal, where as comets are thought to be "dirty
snowballs" - mixtures of ice and rock. So, imagine dropping a bowling
ball and a snowball of the same size - the bowling ball will do more damage.
But, if both the asteroid and the comet have the same mass, then they
have the potential to do the same amount of damage. Although a snowball
may seem less dangerous then a rock, when both are moving at 10 miles per
second or faster, bad things happen.
I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for writing!
Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams
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