1. Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors, Oh My!

2. Comets Loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles
Orbits are usually very long, narrow eclipses
When orbit come close to Sun, it heats up, ice turns into gas, releasing dust

3. Structure of a Comet Coma – gas and dust that form an outer layer
Nucleus – inner layer of comet
Tail – can stretch for millions of kilometers

4. Where are comets found?
Kuiper belt – disc-shaped region of icy objects
beyond the orbit of Neptune (billions of kilometers from our sun)
Oort Cloud – spherical cloud of comets
Spans 30 trillion kilometers from the sun

5. Kuiper Belt

6. Oort Cloud
Jan Oort
Hypothesized cloud in 1950

7. Bayeux Tapestry
Commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an apparition of Comet Halley.

8. Halley’s Comet
76 years

9. Halley’s Comet

10. Comet Shoe-Maker Levy 9 Short periodic comet
1993 collided with Jupiter

11. Meteoroid Come from comets or asteroids Chunk of rock or dust in space
Fun Fact:
On average a meteor streaks overhead every 10 minutes!

12. The Life of a Meteoroid Comets or asteroids break to create a meteroid
Meteroid enters Earth’s atmosphere  meteor (burns up in the sky)
Meteroid passes through Earth’s atmosphere and hits Earth’s surface  meteorite

13. Meteor Showers
October 20, 2011 – pieces of Halley’s comet

14. Asteroids Rocky objects revolving around the sun
Too small and numerous to be planets
Asteroid belt found between Mars and Jupiter
Asteroid Ida

15. Asteroid Belt
Where the majority of asteroids are found

16. Big Bang Theory 65 million years ago Yucatan Pennisula, Mexico
Crater 200 kilometers in diameter

18. Why are there so many craters on the moon compared to the Earth?
Moon has no atmosphere
Earth’s atmosphere
wipes away evidence of craters (wind and water erosion, earthquakes)
Burns up meteors

19. Impact Craters Eye of Quibec Barringer Crater (AZ)
200 million years old 50,000 years old

20. Lunar Craters