Minor Members of the Solar System Asteroids, Comets, Meteors…

Asteroids, Comets, Meteroids… small bodies of matter floating and orbiting through space (particles of dust, ice, heavy metal) small matter left over from the nebular explosion that created the solar system

Asteroids

largest of the small bodies in the solar system (minor planets) fragments of rock that orbit the sun in elliptical manner 50,000 observed and named, but millions exist ASTEROID BELT: region between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids exist

Irregular Orbits of Asteroids

Classified by Composition 1. Carbon 2. Iron/Nickel 3. Silicate minerals dark appearance shiny metallic appearance ordinary earth rocks

Trojan Asteroid near Jupiter

The End of Days????

1999 RQ36 1 – 1,000 chance in hitting Earth In 2182 approximately ¾ mile in diamter

Diablo Canyon - Arizona

asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs

COMETS body of rock, dust, methane, ammonia and ice orbit the Sun in ellipse known orbital periods

3 Components of a Comet 1. NUCLEUS - core 2. COMA – spherical cloud of gas sun reflects off coma ionized particles from Sun’s energy 3. TAIL – gas & dust streaming off coma always points away from the Sun

3 lights years - 30,000,000,000,000 km from the Sun (30 trillion km) Most comets originate in the Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt spherical cloud of dust and ice that contains trillions of comets

 Kuiper Belt Like the asteroids in the inner solar system, most Kuiper belt comets move in nearly circular orbits that lie roughly in the same plane as the planets.  Oort Cloud Comets with long orbital periods appear to be distributed in all directions from the sun, forming a spherical shell around the solar system c alled the Oort cloud. (furthest reach of the Sun’s gravity)

Halley’s Comet – 76 years

Hale Bopp

Meteoroids  Most meteoroids originate from any one of the following three sources:  (1) interplanetary debris that was not gravitationally swept up by the planets during the formation of the solar system  (2) material from the asteroid belt  (3) the solid remains of comets that once traveled near Earth’s orbit. Meteoroids

METEROIDS small bits of rock and metal moving in the solar system sand to boulder size detached or broken off from asteroid or comets METEOR meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere friction in atmosphere produces streaking fireballs shooting stars

Meteor Showers Occur at the same time each year as the Earth’s orbit intersects with the orbit of a comet’s tail

any mass of a meteor that strikes the Earth’s surface Meteorite makes it through the atmosphere extremely dense due to composition 1. Stony Meteorite – composed of Carbon 2. Iron Meteorite – composed of Iron 3. Stony-Iron – made of Iron & Carbon

Meteor strike (New Mexico)

Meteorite – 1,406 pounds

Stuck in Russia

Meteorite – near Lake Tahoe

Hoba Meteorite 60 tons (120,000 pounds) fell in Nambia 80,000 years ago World’s Largest made of Iron

Meteorite strike in Wisconsin April 2010