Topic 11 - Exploring the Solar System Flashcards
What is the nucleus of a comet?
- The centre of the comet
- Rocky/dusty ice
What is the coma of a comet?
It surrounds the nucleus and is very thin
What are the tails of a comet?
- Ion tail, made up of charged particles, pushed by solar wind, points away from Sun
- Dust tail, made up of comet debris, very large
Where did short-period comets likely originate from?
The Kuiper Belt
Where did long-period comets likely originate from?
The Oort Cloud
Where is the Kuiper Belt located, and what is it?
It is a doughnut shaped ring of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune (35AU - 50AU)
Where is the Oort Cloud located, and what is it?
It is a spherical shell of billions of icy objects and could be anywhere from 10 000 AU to 100 000 AU
Where is a meteoroid found?
In space
Where is a meteor found?
In Earth’s atmosphere
Where is a meteorite found?
On Earth
What is the Frost Line?
Beyond the Frost Line, gases can condense - between Mars and Jupiter
What are the three types of meteoroid?
- Stony, silicon and oxygen
- Iron, iron and nickel
- Stony-iron
Where do meteoroids come from?
Comets, asteroids, planets, moons
How does the Transit of Venus allow us to calculate the AU?
- The transit appears at different positions on the Sun depending on viewers location
- Using the distance between the viewers, and the angle between observed transits and Venus you can find the AU
What is a parsec?
The distance at which a star would have a parallax of 1 arc second
