Provides a general overview of comets, asteroids, and meteorites. Content includes ways to identify them in the night sky, as well as detailed information on each type of small body.

Article reports on a new study that claims that the energy released from asteroid collisions may have sparked life on Earth. Includes a list of key vocabulary.

Discover interesting facts about asteroids, large chunks of rock that were leftover from the formation of the solar system.

Bill Nye, the science guy, joins AsapSCIENCE, to talk about asteroids. Specifically, he looks at why asteroids can be so deadly to the Earth, as well as how we detect them and how we possibly stop them. [7:07]

The large fireball observed on the morning of Feb. 15, 2013, in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia, was caused by a relatively small asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere at high speed and at a shallow angle. Preliminary information...

This April 2004 article provides insight and one view into the world of asteroid heating, the age of meteorites and new theories in the changes in shocked and unshocked chondrites. Some great photomicrographs.

From ABC News in Science, Irene Klotz's article examines the possibilities of steering an asteroid away from contact with the Earth as opposed to blowing up the asteroid.

Find out about Clyde Tombaugh, the scientist who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, and also discovered a number of asteroids.

Researchers are beginning to find data implicating that an asteroid impact and supervolcanoes might have been the beginning of the end of dinosaurs on Earth.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations of an asteroid hitting Earth are used to illustrate this widely accepted theory of dinosaur extinction and the resulting conditions that favored mammals.

This site gives an in-depth description of a starfish, including its behavior, appearance, reproduction, and classification. The site includes photos and illustrations and an interactive quiz to test your understanding.

Learn more about the life of the scientist that proposed the theory of mass extinction of the dinosaurs due to an asteroid or comet in this article. Read all about the life and scientific discoveries of Luis Alvarez.

This video segment adapted from NASA uses animation to illustrate the properties of meteor showers and comets. Included is are visualizations of a comet's tail and of Earth passing through a debris stream left behind by meteoroids.

This article, reprinted from the fall 1979 LBL News Magazine, was written about Dr. Luis Alvarez and his part in the study of geological sediments and the great extinctions.

This site from the National Space Science Data Center provides information on the Giotto mission which was designed to study Comet P/Halley. The spacecraft encountered Halley on March 13, 1986 and approached to within 600 km. This page...

Amazing Science provides teachers with facts about comets that they can use as a reference or to stimulate class discussion. The science questions support the instructional activity's activities.

You can produce sky maps for any date and time, viewpoint or observing location. See your sky map, horizon view, or track an asteroid or comet on this highly interactive site.

This site from NASA has information on the Galileo space mission, which launched in October 1989. In spite of technical problems, Galileo transmitted enormous amounts of new data, especially about Jupiter and its satellites and rings,...