According to new research, it has been found that the third largest object near to Earth is actually a Comet and not an asteroid.

`3552 Don Quixote' is one of the brightest objects near the Earth. It is orbiting the Sun in an Earth's atmosphere.

Nearly, 5% of the objects near to the Earth are believed to be "dead" comets, which further mean a comet without water and carbon dioxide.

Michael Mommert, a Ph. D. student at German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin said that `Don Quixote' orbits like a comet, so people assumed it to be a dead comet. But in actual it is not a `dead comet'.

Researchers said that the above study has proved the existence of water on Earth.

Joshua Emery with an international team, University of Tennessee, concluded that Don Quixote is an active comet. It means a comet that does not contain only rocks but also water and ice.

Emery added that the third largest object orbits around the Earth with fast speed, thus proving it to be a comet and not an asteroid.

"We now think this body contains a lot of ice, including carbon dioxide and/or carbon monoxide ice, rather than just being rocky", said Emery.