Department of Education Region VII

Division of Mandaue City

Comets, Meteors &

Asteroids
Science 8
Module 13

SELF LEARNING KIT

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 FOREWARD

This Self-Learning Kit (SLK) in Science will serve as a

guide for grade 8 learners. This will aid you in learning
about comets, meteors and asteroids.

In this kit, you will be able to gain more ideas and

enrich your knowledge and understanding on the
difference between comets, meteors and asteroids.

Through this, you will be more rational in your beliefs

regarding the appearances of comets, meteors and
asteroids in the sky.

OBJECTIVES:

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After going through this kit, you are expected to:
1. Describe the characteristics of comets, asteroids, meteoroids, meteors,
and meteorites
2. Compare and contrast comets and asteroids
3. Provide sound, scientific evidence about superstitions on comets,
asteroids and meteors.

LEARNING COMPETENCY:
The learners should be able to compare, contrast comets, meteors and
asteroids

I. WHAT HAPPENED?

Have you ever seen a

comet? An asteroid or a
meteor?

Maybe you have seen

one but you just don’t
know what it is.

In this lesson, we will be

learning about some
heavenly or celestial
objects that are
sometime seen on Earth
as they passes by our
planet.

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 Let’s ExerSCIENCE

Multiple Choice: Read the following statement. Encircle the letter of the
correct answer.

1. What are comets?

A. Shooting stars
B. The smallest dwarf planets
C. Large balls of ice mixed with rocks and dust
D. Celestial objects that are found between Mars and Jupiter

2. What is a meteor?
A. A star moving slowly across the sky
B. A star moving quickly across the sky
C. A piece of the Sun heading for Earth
D. A piece of space rock burning up in Earth’s atmosphere

3. What is an asteroid?
A. A miniature star
B. A large rock that is orbiting the sun
C. A giant snowball in space
D. A large rock that is orbiting the earth

4. What are most asteroids shaped like?

A. Bananas C. circles
B. Starfish D. Lumpy potatoes

5. What is the asteroid belt?

A. A ring of asteroids orbiting the Sun
B. A ring of asteroids orbiting Earth
C. An area in space where comets come from
D. An area in space beyond the solar system where asteroid are
found.

6. What happens to a comet as it gets close to the Sun?

A. It explodes.
B. It melts and disappears.
C. It melts and forms short tails.
D. It forms long tails made of gas and dust.

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7. When does a comet have the longest tail and largest coma?
A. when it crosses the orbit
B. when it is nearest to the sun
C. When it is moving very slowly
D. when it is moving farthest to the sun

8. Most of the asteroids are located between the orbits of

A. Earth and Mars
B. Venus and Earth
C. Mars and Jupiter
D. Jupiter and Saturn

9. What usually cause a meteor shower?

A. the fairies fall from the sky.
B. Earth passes through an asteroid belt.
C. The head of a comet hits the Earth’s atmosphere.
D. Earth passes through a swarm of dust particles in space.

10. What celestial object consists of a compact nucleus of ice and dust,
surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas, and having a tail that points
away from the sun?
A. Asteroid
B. comet
C. meteorite
D. meteoroid

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 What’s In

HANDS-ON ACTIVITY
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What happens when a comet or an asteroid hits Earth?

Objectives:

After performing this activity, you should be able to:

1. describe how impact craters are formed when a comet or asteroid hits
Earth based on a simulation; and

2. present observations on simulating a comet or asteroid impact using

drawings.

Materials Needed:
Lose soil
Small basin
A small rock (as big as a spoon)

Procedure:
1. Fill the basin with lose soil/ sand about 3-4 centimeters deep.
2. Place the basin on top of a table
3. Throw a pebble to hit the soil/sand. Do this about four times, hitting
different parts of the soil in the basin.
4. On the space below, draw the shape of the “craters” made by the pebble
on the soil/sand as:

a. viewed from the top. b. viewed from the side

Top view of pebble crater Side view of the pebble crater

5. Compare the shape of the pebble’s “crater” with the impact crater photo
shown below.

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 Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona, USA
(Permission obtained from the Center for Science Education,
UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory)

Q1. What do you notice about the shape of your pebble’s crater and the
impact crater shown in the photo?

Q2. What do you think happened to the plants and animals living in the area
where the comet or asteroid crashed?

II. WHAT TO LEARN

What are comets?

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 Comets are one of the remnants from the formation of the solar system
4.6 billion years ago. They orbit around the sun and move relatively slowly
when viewed from Earth. Short-period comets complete their orbits around
the Sun in less than 200 years. For example, the famous comet Halley that
orbits the Sun every 76 years. This comets comes from the Kuiper Belt which is
just beyond Neptune’s orbit.
In contrast, long-period comets takes about 200 to millions of years to
complete their orbit around the sun. Astronomers believed that these comets
come from a region called Oort cloud which is beyond our solar system.

Parts of a Comet

Nucleus: The main solid body of a comet, usually a few kilometers across
which have an irregular shape and size. They are made up of frozen gases of
water, ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide, as well as small pieces of
rocky and metallic materials. That’s why it is referred to as “dirty snowballs”.

Sometimes, comets may contain other elements like sodium or argon, which
is specific to a comet. Comet Hale-Bopp contains argon which was believed
to explain why it appears so bright in 1997.

Coma: A large halo of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus. As the comet
approaches to the sun, the coma becomes bigger because of the sun’s heat
that vaporizes and expands the frozen surface of the nucleus.
The Comet Tail: This is an extension of the coma. As the comet, approaches
the sun, solar radiations and the solar wind push the coma and create a tail
pointing away from the sun. The tail is longest when closest to the sun,
stretching millions of kilometers in length. Most comets have two tails, a
plasma (ion) tail and the dust tail consists of small solid particles.
Comets orbit are highly elliptical where some may occasionally pass
very near a planet. Every time a comet comes close to the sun, it loses more
and more materials, until it will eventually be destroyed if the nucleus is small
enough to survive during the close encounter with the sun.

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What are Asteroids?

Asteroids or planetoids are chunks of

rocks orbiting the sun which are leftovers from
the early days of the solar system. Like the
planets, asteroids also rotate on its axis. They
have irregular shape and size. They have
diameters that range from one to thousand
kilometers. The largest observed asteroid is
Ceres. Like comets, asteroids orbit the sun and
moved relatively slowly when viewed from Asteroid Eros – Permission obtained
earth. from the CSE, UC Berkeley Space
Sciences Laboratory

Do you know why, there is a vast space between planet Mars and
Jupiter compared to the distance between other planets? Between this
planets are where thousands of asteroids are found which is called Asteroid
Belt. Some asteroids are found along the orbit of planet Jupiter and are
called Trojan asteroids. Asteroids are in varied shapes: bone-shaped (asteroid
Kleopatra), potato-shaped, irregular, and approximately spherical (Vesta).
Like comets, asteroids don’t emit its own light, but only reflect light from
the sun in varying amounts depending on the size and composition.
Undetectable to the naked eye, asteroids can be seen clearly using modern
telescopes with advance detectors. Analysis of asteroids using spectroscopy
shows that they fall in three types: very dark, rich in carbon (75% of the
asteroid); rich in rocky materials (15% of the asteroids); and rich in metals such
as iron (10% of the asteroids). If an asteroid contains more silicates (contains
silicon, oxygen and at least one metal) it can reflect light.

Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites

TRIVIA Time!
1. What is a meteor?
2. What is a meteoroid and where does it comes from?
3. Is a shooting star, a star that falls from outer space?
4. When are we going to use the term meteorite?

Have you seen a streak of light that appears on the night sky? It’s not a
star that falls from the sky, as many called it a shooting star, but a meteor. A
meteor is a light phenomenon or a streak of light (fast-moving object that

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appears to have a tail just like a comet) that occurs when a meteoroid burns
up as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It “shoots” from a point in the sky,
making people think that it is a shooting or falling star.

A meteoroid is a broken up rock and dust either a comet, asteroid, the

Moon, or from Mars. When it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, the air in front of
the meteoroid heats up, causing materials to burn up. When a fragment from
the meteoroid survives and makes it to the ground, this space rock fragment
is now called a meteorite. In February 2013, a meteoroid exploded over
Russia hurting a lot of people.

We had mentioned earlier that as comet comes close to the sun, its
materials are disintegrated leaving fragments on its orbits as it continue their
journey. When Earth orbits the sun and passes through the orbit of a comet
where stream of small particles (meteoroids) are found, we will observe many
streaks of light from Earth which is called meteor shower. During a meteor
shower, meteors seem to originate from only one point in the sky because the
meteoroids are traveling in parallel paths with the same velocity. The meteor
shower is named after the constellation where they seem to originate from,
but this does not mean that the meteoroids come from the associated
constellation.

Beliefs and Practices about Comets and Meteors

The heavenly objects like the stars, comets, asteroids, and meteors
have always captured the imagination of ancient civilization . They have
been thought of as bad omens or signs of great change or challenge such as
ushering disasters and wars. But with new scientific processes and tools, as
well as greater access to scientific information, these celestial visitors have
gained the appreciation and interest of many people, scientists and non-
scientists included, all over the world.

TASK!
Research about superstitions related to comets and
asteroids by interviewing your parents or elderly neighbor
or through the internet.
Write it on a short bond paper and answer the question:
Do superstitions about comets and asteroids have
III.WHAT
scientific I LEARNED
basis? Why or why not?

A. Complete the table: Compare and contrast comets and asteroids

basing on the following characteristics.

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 Characteristics Comets Asteroids
Origin

Shape

Size range of
diameter ( kilometer)

Chemical
composition

Orbit

B. Modified True or False: Write TRUE if the statement is true. If the

statement is false change the underlined word to make the sentence
correct.

___________________1. Comets and Asteroids are remnants from the

formation of the solar system.
___________________2. A meteoroid is a rock fragment that reached the
ground as it falls from the outer space.
___________________3. Hale-Bopp comet takes about 76 years to orbit the
sun.
___________________4. Comets are moving slowly in the sky as seen on
earth.
___________________5. Asteroids are made up frozen gases and other
organic compounds.

REFERENCES
Evangelista, E.,et.al.,Science in Today’s World 8.Quezon City: SIBS Publishing
House.Inc.,2014

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Rabago,,L.,et.al.,Science and Teachnology 8. Quezon City:Vibal Publishing
House. Inc.,2014

Salvacion, L.,et.al.,Science, Environment, Technology, and Society 8. SIBS

Publishing House.Inc.,2014

Science Learner’s Module 8.Psig City:Depeartment of Education,2013

Villamor, Rufino A. and Torres, Marivic L. SCIENCE:Conforming to the
Globalized Trends in Education 8. Quezon City: Sta. Teresa
Publication,Inc., 2014

Photo/ Illustrations

Comets. Creative Commons: https://pngimg.com/download/63907

Meteor. Creative Commons:
https://pngimg.com/uploads/meteor/meteor_PNG25.png
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SYNOPSIS

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This Self Learning Kit explains the characteristics of comets, asteroids,
meteoroids, meteor, and meteorites.

The learners are expected to compare and contrast comets and

meteors and be able to provide scientific explanation on the appearances
of celestial objects on earth.

Come and join us, as we learn more about the different celestial objects that
are seen on earth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IVY JOY TRAPA-LEOPOLDO
She graduated Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with Area of
Specialization in General Science at Cebu State College currently known as
Cebu Normal University on 1997. Presently handling Grade 8 students at
Cabancalan National High School and teacher-adviser and coordinator in
the science department. Also had completed her academic requirement in
Master of Education in Science at Cebu Normal University.

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