space rocks

• Asteroids:

  • Refers to specific small celestial bodies that are usually rocky and/or metallic
  • Their size is greater than 100m in diameter
• • Where are the majority of asteroids found?Majority of them are found within and between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter which is called the Asteroid Belt.
• Asteroid’s various shapes:

  1. elongated
  2. Spherical
  3. Irregular
• Trojans

  • These asteroid share an orbit with a large planet or moon
  • Despite sharing an orbit, the celestial bodies do not collide because they are always either ahead or behind a planet or a moon.
• • Many asteroids are big enough  that a spaceship can land on it. These asteroids are called planetoids
  • Mostly rich in iron,nickel and other materials
• Comets:

  • Occasional visitors from space
  • Visible to the naked eye
  • Described as “Dirty Snowballs” 
  • Comets are remnant of gas,dusts,ice and rocks that formed the Solar System
  • Leave behind particles and dust
• Long term

  • Takes more than 200 years to revolve around the sun
  • Oort Cloud (farthest in the solar system)
• Short term:

  • Takes less than 200 year to revolve around the sun
  • Kuiper Belt
• • The coma is the dim envelope that forms around the nucleus of a comet when it approaches the Sun.
• • Dust Tail
  • Long/wider
  • Disappears when they are away from the sun
• ion tail - faces away the sun
• 1. Nucleus

  • Have eyes
  • Less than 50 km in size
  • center
• How to Calculate predicted/next appearance of a Comet:

  Last Appearance + Period
• Meteoroids - space

  • Fragments of rocky material
  • Diameter is smaller than 100 m
  • Very tiny meteoroids are known as micrometeoroids or sonic dusts
  • small pieces of rocks or metal that breaks off a comet or an asteroid
• meteor - atmosphere

  • when these small pieces of rocks are pulled into earth's atmosphere
  • heats up and burns, which makes them red hot
• meteorite - surface

  • does not burn up in earth's atmosphere
  • when they fall in earth surface
  • surviving particles
  • pebble size
• meteor shower - if more than one of these meteors heats up

  • when earth encounters many meteoroids at once
  • Happen when space debris enters our planet
• Asteroids:

  • Metallic and rocky
  • Size of more than 100m
  • Found between Mars and Jupiter’s orbit
  • Irregular shapes
  • Planetoids
  • Trojan
• Comets:

  • Has nucleus
  • Found in oort cloud
  • Found in kuiper cloud
  • Has tails
  • Cosmic dust
  • Made of ice and dusts
  • Dirty snowball
• Meteoroids:

  • Meteors
  • Meteorites
  • Came from asteroid, comets, moon, planets
  • Metallic and rocky
  • Also can be found in the oort cloud
  • In between mars and jupiter
  • Cosmic dust