06 asteroids, comets, and meteors Flashcards
How were our planets made?
At the very beginning of our solar system, a huge swirling cloud of dust and gas circled the Sun
The dust particles in this disk collided with each other and formed into larger rocks
This process continued until they grew larger and eventually formed the planets of our solar system
What was discovered in the comet dust by the Stardust mission?
What theory does what was discovered support about some of life’s ingredients?
The amino acid glycine
Supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients (ex. water) were formed in space and delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts
What are asteroids and what is is made of, what does it orbit, what is its size?
Small celestial objects made of rock and metal
Orbit the sun
Vary in size and can have a diameter of up to 950 km!
The largest asteroids are round, but most are irregularly shaped.
Where does the vast majority of asteroids lie?
The vast majority of asteroids lie in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter or the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune
What are comets, what is is made of, what is its size, and how long does it take to orbit the Sun?
Comets are large chunks of ice, dust, and rock that orbit the Sun.
They range in size from less than 100 m to more than 40 km across.
Some comets take a few years to travel around the Sun, whereas others take hundreds of thousands of years.
Comets can either be …
short- or long-period comets.
Short-period comets originate from…
How long does it take to travel around the Sun?
just beyond the orbit of Neptune and travel around the Sun in less than 200 years.
Halley’s Comet is a
When was the last visit of this comet and when will it return?
short-period comet, taking 75 to 76 years to make one trip around the Sun.
The last visit of Halley’s Comet was in 1986; it will return in 2061.
Long-period comets originate from…
How long does it take to travel around the Sun?
farther away than Pluto and take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun.
Comet Hale-Bopp is one of the most recent
How long does it take for this comet to make a trip around the Sun?
long-period comets to be observed from Earth.
It takes about 2380 years for Hale-Bopp to make one trip around the Sun.
When a comet gets close enough to the Sun, its outer surface begins to… (term + explanation)
sublimate (solid 🡪 gas)
Gases and dust escape forming a gaseous cloud called a coma
Radiation and solar wind from the Sun exert forces causing a gaseous tail to form, pointing directly away from the Sun. In addition, a dust tail forms in the direction from which the comet originated
What is a meteoroid, what is it made out, what is its size, and what happens when meteoroids are pulled into Earth’s gravity?
A meteoroid is a piece of metal or rock (smaller than an asteroid)
Most meteoroids are the size of dust particles, but some can be as large as a car
Meteoroids sometimes get pulled in by Earth’s gravity. Friction causes them to burn up, creating a bright streak of light across the sky, known as a meteor (shooting star)
Difference between meteors, meteoroids, and meteorites…
A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the sky when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of the frictional heating from the piece’s collision with the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.
Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, it floats through interplanetary space and is called a meteoroid.
The chunk that has survived its fiery journey is called a meteorite.
