Asteroids, Comets, Meteors Flashcards
loose collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles whose orbits are usually very long narrow ellipses
Comets
comes from the greek word for hair
Comet
outer layer of the head
Coma (water vapor, CO2, and other gases
solid inner core
nucleus (Frozen ice, gas and dust)
T or F
As a comet approaches the sun and heats up, some of its gas and dust stream outward, forming a tail
T
2 tails of a comet
ion tail
dust tail
T or F
Tails point toward from the sun because of the force of the solar wind
F - away
Comets move in an __________ shaped orbit
elliptical
2 regions of the solar system where most comets are found
Kuiper Belt
Opet Cloud
extends beyond Neptune’s orbit to about 100 times Earth’s distance from the sun
Kuiper Belt
surrounds the solar system out to more than 1000 times between pluto and the sun
Oort cloud
most famous comet in history
Comet Halley
each time Halley’s orbit approaches the sun, its 15-km (9-mile) nucleus sheds about 6m (7 yards) of ice and rock into space. This debris forms am orbiting trail that when falling to Earth is called ________ meteor shower
Orionids
reappears every 76 years, its next appearance would be in 2061
Halley’s Comet
July 23, 1995- an unusually large and bright comet was seen outside of Jupiter’s orbit by Alan Hale of New Mexico and Thomas Bopp of Arizona
Comet Hale-Bopp
visible even through bright city skies and may have been the most viewed comet in record history
Comet Hale-Bopp
It will not appear again for another 2,400 years
Comet Hale-Bopp
January 30, 1996 - Yuji Hyakutake an amateur astronomer from southern japan discovered a new comet using a pair of binoculars
Comet Hyakutake
Between July 16 and July 22 1994, more than 20 fragments of this comet collided with the planet Jupiter. Astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and Devid Levy discovered the comet in 1993. It was the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be recorded
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
launched in december 2004 and encountered comet tempel 1 on july 4, 2005- mission that studied and impacted comet tempel 1
Deep Impact Spacecraft
small rocky space object
asteroids
most asteroids are found in _________
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is located between _____ and _____
Mars; Jupiter
T or F
There are about 40,000 known asteroids that are over 0.5 miles (1 km) in diameter in the asteroid belt. About 3000 have been cataloged
T
Smaller asteroids are about ________
100,000
made of metals, silicate, iron, nickel, and carbon
Asteroids
first and the biggest asteroid discovered in 1801
Ceres
T or F
Asteroids range in size from tiny pebbles to about 578 miles (930 km) in diameter (Ceres)
T
T or F
Asteroids can be pulled out of their solar orbit by the gravitational pull of a planet. They would then orbit that planet instead of orbiting the Sun
T
Two moons of Mars captured by asteroids
Phobos and Deimos
Scientists hypothesize that one or more large asteroids hit the earth 6.5 million years ago and caused extinction of the dinosaurs
basahin mo
What caused the largest mass extinction 250 million years ago killing 90% of all species?
a large asteroid
first of NASA’s discovery missions and the first mission ever to go into orbit around an asteroid (launched 1996)
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)
chunk of rock and dust in space
meteroid
come from comets or asteroids
meteroids
when a meteoroid enters earth’s atmosphere, friction with the air creates hear and produces a streak of light that you can see in the sky
Meteor
meteoroid that enters earth’s atmosphere and burns up
meteor
pass through the atmosphere and hit Earth’s surface
Meteorites
meteoroids are classified by composition:
Stony
Iron
Stony-Iron
