Transcript Other Objects in Our Solar System

Other Objects in Our Solar
System
Comets, Meteors, Asteroids, and Kuiper
Belt Objects (KBOs)
Halley’s Comet 1910
Comets
• Halley’s Comet takes 76 years to orbit
the sun. It was last seen near Earth in
1986.
• A comet is a “dirty ice-ball”.
• It is made of ice, rock, methane, and
ammonia.
• There is a large cloud of comets beyond
Pluto. They are called the “Oort Cloud”.
Comets
• Comets show “tails” which point away
from the sun.
• The tails are caused by the ice
becoming gas.
• The “coma” is a bright cloud of gas that
forms around the solid core of the
comet.
Asteroids
Asteroid Ida and its moon
Asteroids
• Asteroids are pieces of rock and
mineral.
• There is an asteroid belt which orbits
the sun between Mars and Jupiter.
• There are pieces which are basketball
size to 940 Km (580 mi.) for the dwarf
planet Ceres.
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites
A mineral meteorite
An iron meteorite
Meteoroids
• Meteoroids are pieces of moons,
planets, and asteroids which are
relatively small.
• Some meteoroids are small enough that
they burn up as they enter Earth’s
atmosphere. These are meteors.
• Some are large enough that they land
on Earth. They are meteorites.
Sedna
Sedna
Trans- Neptunian Objects (TNOs)
• Objects in the solar system which are
farther than Neptune. Some cross
Neptune’s orbit.
• TNOs include KBOs, SDOs, and comets
• KBO = Kuiper Belt Objects
• SDOs = Scattered Disk Objects
Kuiper Belt Objects- 30 AUs out to 50 AUs
• There are very large objects found
beyond Neptune
• Quaoar is an 800 mile wide KBO.(43AU)
• Quaoar was found in June 2002 by
Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown at Caltech
in Pasadena.
• NASA WEB
TNOs
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Where are TNOs?
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New TNOs or new dwarf planets?
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Ixion , 650 mi wide, 3.7 Billion mi out.
2002 UX25, 580 mi., 4 Billion mi. out.
Varuna , 560 mi., 4 billion mi. out.
2002 TX300, 540 mi. , 4 billion mi.
2002 AW197, 550 mi., 4.4 billion mi.
2004 DW, 1,000 miles wide, 4.4 billion
miles from the sun, discovered 2/17/04.
New Dwarf Planets
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New Planets Or TNOs…IAU
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Xena 1600 mi 2003 Now Eris (8/06)
Sedna 930 mi 2003
Orcus 930 mi 2004
Quaoar 800 mi 2002
Easter Bunny 775 mi. 2005
Santa 744 mi. 2003
Buffy 720 mi. 2005
Ixion 660 mi. 2001
Dwarf Planets August 24,2006
• The IAU has declared several TNOs to
be “dwarf planets”
• This is why Pluto was demoted in Aug.,
2006. It is smaller than several TNOs.
• Xena was officially named Eris on Sept.
13, 2006
Eris : The New Dwarf Planet (SDO)
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The SDOs and the Oort Cloud
• Scattered Disk Objects are KBOs that
have been scattered by the gravity of
Neptune.
• They have irregular orbits.
• The Oort cloud is located 50,000 AU to
100,000 AU or about 1 light year out.
• The Oort Cloud is made of millions of
comets.