Asteroids, Dwarf Planets, Comets

Question 1

asteroids second name

Answer 1

small solar system bodies (sssb)

Question 2

asteroids made of

Answer 2

rock and metal

Question 3

how many asteroids registered, how many have well-know orbits, how many have official names

Answer 3

400,000 registered, 200,000 well known, 14,000 officially named.

Question 4

how many asteroids have > 1 km diameter

Answer 4

1-2 million

Question 5

largest asteroid

Answer 5

ceres (next is pallas and vesta)

Question 6

ceres diameter

Answer 6

> 900 km

Question 7

total mass of all asteroids

Answer 7

4% of moons mass, ceres alone is 1/3 of that.

Question 8

asteroid locations

Answer 8

asteriod belt and trojans (outer parts of solar system)

Question 9

dwarf planets

Answer 9

pluto, eris, ceres, haumea, makemake

Question 10

dwarf planets orbit

Answer 10

eccentric

Question 11

pluto year of discovery

Answer 11

1930 by telescope, was predicted before

Question 12

pluto diameter, mass, density, rotation

Answer 12

2274 km (1/6 earth), 1/400 earths mass, 2.3 density, reotrgrade rotation.

Question 13

pluto distance from sun

Answer 13

average 40 AU from sun, sometimes closer to sun than neptune due to its eccentric orbit

Question 14

pluto tilt, year length

Answer 14

17.2 degrees tilt, orbit takes 284 years, locked in 3:2 resonance with neptune (every 3 neptune orbits, pluto does 2).

Question 15

charon discovery date

Answer 15

1978

Question 16

charon mass and radius

Answer 16

1/6 pluto mass, 1/2 plutos radius

Question 17

distance from pluto and orbit

Answer 17

only 200,000 km from pluto so orbit is around common center of mass, once every 6.4 days, locked in rotation always showing same side to each other.

Question 18

comets shape and size

Answer 18

potato shaped big dirty snowballs, approx. 10km x 40km.

Question 19

comet structure

Answer 19

made of dirt (carbonic/silicate materials) and mixed and covered with ice.

Question 20

where are comets

Answer 20

oort cloud and kuiper belt (much smaller than oort cloud)

Question 21

comet tails

Answer 21

as they approach sun, they develop an ion tail always facing away from sun.

closer to the sun, a curved dust tail may also appear.