Part III

once considered the ninth planet most famous dwarf planet smaller than a planet but massive enough for its own gravity to give it a round shape it is not the largest dwarf planet

often referred to as “dirty snowballs composed of ice, rock, and gas. They travel in a long, elliptical orbit most spectacular feature of a comet is its long dust tail, which can stretch for millions of kilometres.

In the 1700s, British astronomer Edmond Halley was searching records and realized that a bright comet was visible every 76 years or so.

Asteroids are small bodies that are believed to be leftover remains of the formation of the solar system. Asteroids range from the size of sand grains up to about 1000 km across Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a band between Mars and Jupiter

Meteoroids are pieces of rock floating through space. Meteors are meteoroids that burn up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed Meteorites are meteors are large enough to survive passing through the atmosphere, and they reach Earth’s surface. Impact sites

the Canadarm 1 on the space shuttle

the International Space Station (Canadarm 2)

The newest development is the robotic manipulator officially named Dextre (for “dexterous”), a two-armed robot that attaches to the end of Canadarm 2.

Roberta Bondar First Canadian female Astronaut Marc Garneau First Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield First Canadian Space walk

Rockets Much of the body of a rocket is filled with explosive fuels that combine to create thrust

Space Suits A space suit acts as a small spaceship communications system, a cooling Pressure system

Orbiting Satellites electronic devices put in orbit around Earth to relay information Communication satellites are placed in geosynchronous orbit.

Probes Probes are designed to travel millions of kilometres, carrying scientific instruments to analyze distant objects in space. Voyager 1 Went to Jupiter and Saturn

Rovers Sending human explorers on long space journeys to distant, dangerous planets is not a practical idea. Robotic space explorers offer a better option. Spirit and Opportunity Went to Mars

Optical telescopes Optical telescopes use lenses to gather and focus light to provide a magnified view. a wide-field high resolution CCD mosaic of 36 CCDs Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Reflecting telescopes use a series of mirrors to collect light and project the image to an eyepiece lens Hubble space telescope Very clear outside Earth’s Atmoshere

Radio telescopes Collect wavelengths that are longer than those of light Reveal characteristics of celestial objects that could not be studied using optical telescopes Very Large Array Radio Telescope baseline of 36 km

adaptive optics technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion. Spectroscopy Study of the absorption and emission of light and other radiation by matter, as related to the dependence of these processes on the wavelength of the radiation