An asteroid with an albedo of 0.1 and a comet with an albedo of 0.6 are orbiting at roughly the same distance from the Sun.How do their temperatures compare?
A) They both have the same temperature.
B) The comet is hotter than the asteroid.
C) The asteroid is hotter than the comet.
D) You must know their distance to compare their temperatures.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The albedo of an object is a measure of how reflective it is. An object with a high albedo (like the comet with an albedo of 0.6) reflects more sunlight and absorbs less, therefore, it would have a lower temperature than an object with a low albedo (like the asteroid with an albedo of 0.1), which absorbs more sunlight and reflects less. Therefore, the asteroid would be hotter than the comet in this scenario.

An Asteroid with an Albedo of 0