COMETS, ASTEROIDS AND METEORS Flashcards
What are comets?
lose collection of ice, dust, and small rocky particles whose orbits are usually very long, narrow ellipses.
What are the 3 main parts of a comet?
Coma, Nucleus,Dust tail
What forms a comet’s tail?
As it goes closer to the sun it heats up and some of its gas and dust stream outward.
T or F. Can a come’ts tail be longer than 100 million kilometers?
True
If the orbit of a comet is 500 times the distance between Pluto and the sun, which region is it in? explain
It is in the Oort cloud region because it surrounds the solar system out to more than 1,000 times the distance between Pluto and the sun.
Where is the Kuiper belt?
it is a doughnut shaped region that extends from Neptune;s orbit to about 100 times Earth’s distance from the sun.
Asteroid?
rocky objects revolving around the sun that are too small to be considered planets.
Where is the Asteroid belt?
It revolves around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
What happened when an asteroid collided with Earth 65 million years ago?
The dinosaurs died on earth and filled the atmosphere with dust and smoke.
Meteoroid?
a chunk of rock or dust from comets or asteroids.
Meteor?
a streak of light in the sky when a meteoroid enters our atmosphere.
Meteorites?
Meteoroids that hit the Earth’s surface.
From what are the Moon’s craters caused by?
the impact of the Meteoroids.
/What causes a meteoroid to become a meteorite
when a meteoroid hits the Earth’s surface.
How can you tell a meteor from a comet?
A comet has a long tail.
