Saint Columban College

HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

7016 Pagadian City
SCORE

S T U D E N T ’ S A C T I V I T Y S H E E T

Name: _______________________________ Date:__________________

Year & Section: _____________________ Subject: Science 8

Lesson No. 13
Learning Content: Comets, Asteroids, and Meteoroids
Learning Targets: At the end of the lesson I CAN:
a. describe what are meteors, comets, and asteroids,
b. enumerate different parts of a comet,
c. differentiate meteors, comets, and asteroids,
d. give importance in studying on how these comets, asteroids, and meteoroids affect the Earth.

Learning Resource/s: Papa, E.C.,et. al ( 2018). Practical Science 8: Makati City, Philippines: DIWA LEARNING
SYSTEMS INC. pp. 189 – 210

Core Values: Taking care of the mother Earth.

I- Concept Notes

Comets – a small body made up of ice, rock, and cosmic dust.

- Sometimes called as dirty snowballs or icy mud balls.
- Those that are found outside the solar system are called exocomets.

Parts of a Comet
 Nucleus
 Coma
 Tail: Dust and Ion
 Orbital period of a Comet
 Short-period comets (less than 200 years) from Kuiper Belt
 Long-period comets (more than 200 years) from Oort Cloud

Meteoroids – either metallic or rocky.

- Small pieces of stony or metallic space debris usually parts of comets that break apart orbiting the
Sun.

Meteor – a term for a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteor shower – the phenomenon when many meteors appear from the same point.
- This happens when a comet leaves debris along Earth’s path.
Meteorites – a term when meteor survives the burning in the atmosphere and reaches the Earth’s surface.
- Solid debris that can also originate from asteroids or comets.

Asteroids – the largest minor bodies in the solar system.

- They are considered as minor planets.
- Sometimes called as planetoids.
- Said to be remnants of the formation of the solar system.

Vesta – one of the largest asteroids that has a diameter of 530km.

Asteroid Belt – located between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter.
- The belt holds more than 2oo asteroids larger than 1ookm in diameter.
Trojans – these are asteroids found beyond the asteroid belt.

Giuseppe Piazzi – an Italian astronomer, who discover the first asteroid, and he called it Ceres.

Asteroids are generally classified into three classes according to their appearance and composition.
 Carbonaceous asteroids or C-type
 Silacaceous asteroids or S-type
 Metallic asteroids or M-type