VOCAB: Unit 4

Question 1

Betyls

Answer 1

What the Greeks and Romans called meteorites

Question 2

Kaaba Stone

Answer 2

A large meteorites that the Muslims used to pay homage

Question 3

Father of Meteoritics

Answer 3

Ernst Chianti, who published a book about what he knew about meteorites

Question 4

Ceres

Answer 4

Was an asteroid, but has now been classified as a dwarf planet

Question 5

Asteroid

Answer 5

A natural rocky object in space measuring 100m to several hundred km in diameter

Question 6

Meteoroid

Answer 6

A natural rocky object in space measuring from a few mm to 100m in diameter

Question 7

Meteor

Answer 7

NOT the object, only the light phenomenon. The streak of light associated w/passage of a SMALL meteoroid

Question 8

Fireball

Answer 8

Light associated w/ a LARGE meteoroid or asteroid as it interacts w/ the atmosphere

Question 9

Meteorite

Answer 9

A fragment of either a meteoroid or asteroid that lands on earth’s surface, its NOT a meteorite until it lands on a surface!!

Question 10

Main Asteroid Belt

Answer 10

The gap between Mars and Jupiter

Question 11

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids**

Answer 11

Some asteroids that are not in the Main Belt and can be dangerous. Are a minimum of 150m and comes closer than 0.05 AU to Earth

Question 12

Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research

Answer 12

A telescope built in Mexico, an electro-optical detector w/ a charge coupled device

Question 13

Kirkwood Gaps**

Answer 13

These gaps corresponded to simple fractions of the orbital period of Jupiter, within gaps gravitational perturbation is STRONG

Question 14

Albedo

Answer 14

The proportion of the light reflected from an object, range is 0 = black to 1 = perfectly reflecting the object

Question 15

Spectrometers

Answer 15

Used to break down the reflected light in a whole spectrum, tells us which minerals are reflecting the light

Question 16

C-Type Asteroids

Answer 16

These are high in CARBON, takes up 75% of the known asteroids. Its similar in composition to the Sun

Question 17

S-Type Asteroids

Answer 17

These are high in SILICON, takes up 17% of the known asteroids.

Question 18

M-Type Asteroids

Answer 18

Theses are METALLIC (metals), and takes up the remaining known asteroids.

Question 19

Carbonaceous Asteroids

Answer 19

They have dark carbon-rich minerals on their surfaces

Question 20

E-Type Asteroids

Answer 20

Have enstatite and have the highest albedo!

Question 21

4 Vesta

Answer 21

Brightest in the sky

Question 22

Asteroid Family**

Answer 22

The breakup of an asteroid into a collection of fragments, resulting in similar orbital characteristics

Question 23

Hirayama Families

Answer 23

What they asteroid families are now referred to, basis of similar proper orbital features, hirayama was able to recognize clusters of asteroids

Question 24

Near Earth Asteroids

Answer 24

Subdivisions of asteroids that aren’t in the belt, which are then divided into categories by the dimensions of their orbits

Question 25

Atens**

Answer 25

Asteroids that have orbits less than 1 AU, meaning most of the time they are within the orbit of Earth

Question 26

Apollos**

Answer 26

Most of these asteroids have an orbit that brings them through the orbit of Earth

Question 27

Amors**

Answer 27

These asteroids commonly cross the orbit of Mars and get close to Earth’s but doesn’t actually cross it

Question 28

Trojan Asteroids**

Answer 28

Trapped chunks of debris, named after the heroes of Trojan

Question 29

Apophis

Answer 29

An asteroids previously listed as a 4, but reduced to 0 on the Torino Scale.

Question 30

Finds

Answer 30

More or less stumble across it and you have no information of when it got there

Question 31

Falls

Answer 31

A meteorite whose entry thought the atmosphere has been witnessed, and someone has recovered a piece of the object

Question 32

Irons

Answer 32

Consist almost entirely of iron + nickel metal alloys (6%)

Question 33

Stony-Irons

Answer 33

Nearly 50-50 mix of the same metal alloys and non-metallic silicate/oxide material that looks like ordinary stone (1%)

Question 34

Stones

Answer 34

Almost entirely the latter material (97%), Make up about 93% of all known meteorites

Question 35

Chondrites

Answer 35

Considered aggregates of ‘cosmic sediment’ that haven’t been altered nor melted greatly since first compressed together

Question 36

Achondrites

Answer 36

Are igneous rocks that have been at least partially melted and recrystallized

Question 37

Accretion

Answer 37

Process of clumping together of the various product appearing in chondrites

Question 38

Primitive Achondrite

Answer 38

If the fragment is a chunks of the residual product

Question 39

Ablation

Answer 39

Erosion process by removing small masses

Question 40

Inertia

Answer 40

Body’s resistance to a change in its motion

Question 41

Momentum

Answer 41

A product of the body’s mass, amount of material it contains, and its speed or velocity

Question 42

Kinetic Energy

Answer 42

Involved the body’s mass and velocity, but increases exponentially w/velocity. Greater a meteoroid’s mass and velocity, the greater the kinetic energy

Question 43

Regmaglypts

Answer 43

Surfaces of some meteorites are marked w/depressions resembling thumbprints that form by ablation, probably as the meteoroid rocks back and forth or tumbles so there’s selective melting

Question 44

Fusion Crust

Answer 44

Any melting at all will produce this on the object

Question 45

Chondrule

Answer 45

The small rounded inclusions in chondrites