Unit 4 Flashcards
Where in our solar systems do many asteroids reside?
In the Asteroid Belt, between Mars and Jupiter
Why is there an asteroid belt? How did it form?
It represents the material that never assembled into a planet
Are all meteorites from the asteroid belt?
No, we also have meteorites from Mars and the Moon. Not so much from Venus, the trajectory will always be toward the greatest gravitational attraction, which is the Sun
What does the Titius Bode Law allow us to predict?
The predicted planet spacing in AU
Why is it important to learn about asteroids?
- They represent very primitive material left over from formation of the Solar System 2.Much water and organic material came to Earth from them 3. Sooner or later a large asteroid impact is likely to put an end to many terrestrial species (including humans)
Where are most asteroids found in the solar system?
In the Main Asteroid Belt
What are asteroids and meteorites thought to represent? (e.g. age and material)
Meteorites shows that asteroids are the last remain of the planetesimals that built the planets 4.57B years ago
Why did the asteroid belt form between Mars and Jupiter?
Jupiter’s has such a large mass that its gravity dramatically affects the motions of small bodies anywhere close to it
If all the meteoroids and asteroids in the main asteroid belt coalesced, would there be an additional Earth-sized planet between Mars and Jupiter?
No, because Jupiters gravity prevents these objects to coalesced
Why are some asteroids metallic while others are not?
????
Are the most primitive asteroids closer to Mars or Jupiter?
Jupiter
Why are the most plentiful asteroid types (carbonaceous chondrites) the least common meteorites found on Earth?
????
What is a differentiated body?
Means that they have been heated, by radioactive decay and from the energy released during accretion, enough that their interior starts to melt
Give an example of the kinds of features the spacecraft Dawn has observed on large asteroids.
Physical measurements revealed that it has a metal-rich core that is approx. 220m in diameter for Vesta
When two asteroids of unequal size collide, will the fragments come from the larger body or the smaller one?
From the larger body because the smaller one would probably melt
Do Near Earth Objects have circular or elliptical orbits?
HIGHLY elliptical
What size of an impactor could cause global effects on Earth?
Larger than 1km in diameter
What does it mean as numbers increase on the Torino Scale?
Scale of 0-10 to describe the level of concern of a certain event
What are the sources of meteorites that we have found on Earth? How representative of the sources are the samples?
???
Of Irons, Stony-Irons, and Stones, which is most commonly found on Earth?
Stones
How are chondrules formed?
They condensed from a hot cloud of gas and dust, very early in the Solar System history, by a ‘flash-melting’ of dust aggregates in the solar nebula
Why are scientists so excited about studying carbonaceous chondrites?
Taken as a whole their composition more closely matches that of the Sun than any other material we have to examine
What are the possible sources of micro-meteoroids (a.k.a. interplanetary dust)
Composed of silicate minerals???
How does a meteor shower occur? What is the difference between a meteor shower and a fireball?
They come from very specific regions of the sky, and travel together in space in the same direction along a common orbit. Different from a fireball because most meteoroids that produce fireballs are massive enough to survive atmospheric passage, often explosively disintegrating into several smaller pieces en-route while a meteor shower would never survive to reach Earth’s surface
