A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust.

They are often

compared to dirty snowballs, though recent research has led some scientists
to call them snowy dirtballs. Comets contain dust, ice, carbon dioxide,
ammonia, methane and more. Astronomers think comets are leftovers from
the gas, dust, ice and rocks that initially formed the solar system about 4.6
billion years ago.
Some researchers think comets might have originally brought some of
the water and organic molecules to Earth that now make up life here. To
research this hypothesis, the Rosetta mission, which landed a probe on a
comet on Nov. 12, 2014, is studying its nucleus and environment, observing
how it changes as it approaches the sun.
Comets orbit the sun, but most are believed to inhabit in an area
known as the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Occasionally a comet
streaks through the inner solar system; some do so regularly, some only
once every few centuries. Many people have never seen a comet, but those
who have won't easily forget the celestial show.

Asteroids are small, airless rocky worlds revolving around the sun that
are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or
minor planets. In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of
Earth's moon. But despite their size, asteroids can be dangerous. Many have
hit Earth in the past, and more will crash into our planet in the future. That's
one reason scientists study asteroids and are eager to learn more about their
numbers, orbits and physical characteristics. If an asteroid is headed our
way, we want to know that.
Most asteroids lie in a vast ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This
main asteroid belt holds more than 200 asteroids larger than 60 miles (100
kilometers) in diameter. Scientists estimate the asteroid belt also contains
more than 750,000 asteroids larger than three-fifths of a mile (1 km) in
diameter and millions of smaller ones. Not everything in the main belt is an
asteroid for instance, comets have recently been discovered there, and
Ceres, once thought of only as an asteroid, is now also considered a dwarf
planet.
Many asteroids lie outside the main belt. For instance, a number of asteroids
called Trojans lie along Jupiter's orbital path. Three groups Atens, Amors,
and Apollos known as near-Earth asteroids orbit in the inner solar system
and sometimes cross the path of Mars and Earth.

Little chunks of rock and debris in space are called meteoroids. They
become meteors -- or shooting stars -- when they fall through a planet's
atmosphere, leaving a bright trail as they are heated to incandescence by
the friction of the atmosphere. Pieces that survive the journey and hit the
ground are called meteorites.
hooting stars, or meteors, are bits of interplanetary material falling through
Earth's atmosphere and heated to incandescence by friction. These objects
are called meteoroids as they are hurtling through space, becoming meteors
for the few seconds they streak across the sky and create glowing trails.