1. Please make a T-Chart about comets, asteroids, and meteorites.

2. SMALL BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

3. Orbit of these smaller bodies
All orbits are ellipses or elliptical… or like a squashed circle.
Location to the sun
Perihelion: orbit is closest to the sun
Aphelion: orbit is farthest from the sun

4. 3 TYPES OF BODIES
Comets
Asteroids
Meteoroids

5. Comets a.k.a. “dirty snowballs”
Body of ice, rock, and cosmic dust
Form in outer, colder parts of the solar system
3 Parts of the comet
Nucleus: solid center
Dust tail: blown away from the sun
Ion tail: charged particles blown away from the sun

6. ASTEROIDS 1) rocky, irregular shaped bodies that orbit the sun
Can be a few meters to 900 km in diameter
Located in the asteroid belt….between Mars and Jupiter

7. Meteoroids, Meteorites, Meteor
Meteoroid: small, rocky body orbiting the sun
Meteorite: a meteoroid that has struck the Earth’s surface
Meteor: a meteroid that burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere
can cause meteor showers

8. Impact
Objects smaller than 10 meters tend to burn up in the atmosphere
Moon has no atmosphere so is loaded with craters
A major impact could cause a global catastrophe and possibly has before

9. Rotation vs. Revolution
Rotation: time spent for a planet or moon to spin around one time.
Ours…24 hours
1) Revolution: length of complete orbit around the sun
Not to be confused with a war
Ours…365 days