Transcript meteors - Ms Dudek`s Website

Comets
 small body of ice, rock,
and cosmic dust
 “dirty snowballs”
 tail visible when comet
gets close enough to
the sun (points away
from sun due to solar
winds)
--tail can be millions of
miles long
 gets smaller with every
trip (melts)
…website animation…
 http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_scie
nce/terc/content/visualizations/es2706/es27
06page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization
(comet passage)
You can see a comet for weeks (or
months)!
…unlike a meteor
Asteroids
 dense, rocky bodies that orbit the sun (over
100,000 known)—smaller than a planet
 most are irregularly shaped (not round)
 size: few meters to 900 km
 most found in the asteroid belt (between Mars
and Jupiter)
Ceres
largest known asteroid (785 km long)—
now considered to be a dwarf planet
Meteoroids
Meteoroid= small pieces of comets or
asteroids in space
Meteor= burning up in atmosphere
(inaccurate to say “falling/shooting star”)
Meteorite= hits the ground (MAY make a
crater)
WOW!!!
Meteor shower over Russia, Feb 15, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvo
tWfR3j4
Which one is this?
What caused this?
 meteor
 meteorite
Did you know??
The mass of the earth increases every
year because of the 3,000 TONS of
meteorite debris that hits the surface from
space!
Approximately every 50-60 years,
somebody is struck by a meteor; last time
was in 1954
The odds of you being hit is a billion to one
(no human has ever been killed by a
meteor strike).
Think about it….
If we were to send a manned mission to
Mars, how could we avoid getting
damaged by the asteroid belt?
 The asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter.
If you lived on the moon, about how many
meteors would you see on the moon in an
earth year?
 None—no atmosphere
Which of the following is a characteristic of
comets?
A. Comets are composed of rocky material,
iron, and nickel.
B. Comets follow a circular orbit around the
sun.
C. Comets give off gas and dust when heated
by the sun.
D. Comets are rich in iron.
Which of the following is a wide region of
small, rocky bodies that is located
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter?
A. the Kuiper belt
B. the Oort cloud
C. the asteroid belt
D. the rings of Saturn
When it approaches the sun, which object
produces a shimmering tail that lasts at
least a few days?
a comet
In which direction does a comet’s tail
always face?
away from the sun
Where are most asteroids found?
in orbit between Mars and Jupiter
What is the sequence that describes a
space rock that falls to Earth’s surface?
meteoroid, meteor, meteorite
Which one of the following objects in our
solar system would travel the greatest
distance during one revolution around the
sun?
A. a terrestrial planet
B. an asteroid
C. a gas giant
D. a comet