Comets, Asteroids

and Meteors
PREPARED BY: TYPE YOUR NAME HERE
S8ES -IIg - 22
Compare and contrast comets,
meteors, and asteroids
What are the parts of a typhoon?

Describe how land forms and bodies of

water affect the formation of typhoon.
Describe the following:

Comet
Asteroids
Meteors/ Meteorites/ Meteoroids
Asteroids

Asteroids are rocky fragments left over

from the formation of the solar system
about 4.6 billion years ago.
Asteroids

These rocky fragments are also called

Minor Planets or Planetoids.
Most asteroids orbit the sun in a belt
between Mars and Jupiter ( Asteroid
Belt)
Asteroids

Scientists think there are probably

millions of asteroids, ranging widely in
size from hundreds of kilometers across
to less than one kilometer (a little more
than one-half mile) wide.
Asteroids
Occasionally, asteroids' orbital paths are
influenced by the gravitational tug of planets,
which cause their paths to alter.
Scientists believe stray asteroids or fragments
from earlier collisions have slammed into Earth
in the past, playing a major role in the
evolution of our planet
Asteroids

Asteroid Ida and its moon Dactyl, imaged by the Galileo spacecraft.
 Comets

 Comets are relatively small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies and, like asteroids,
they are left over from the solar system formation process.
 Comets, however, are icy dirtballs that form in the outer solar system.
 The icy surface is embedded with dust, grit and particles from space.
 Many comets have elliptical orbits that cut across the orbits of the planets,
taking them very close to the sun and then swinging them far away, often past
Pluto.
 The most distant comets may take more than 30 million years to complete one
orbit.
 Comets with smaller orbital paths can take less than 200 years to orbit the sun,
making them more predictable.
 Comets

 When far from the sun, comets are very cold, icy dirtballs. As
they approach the sun, their surfaces begin to warm and volatile
materials vaporize. The vaporizing gases carry small dust grains
with them, which form an atmosphere of gas and dust and can
look like a bright tail when seen from Earth.
 Meteors, meteoroids and Meteorites
 While travelling through space, asteroids sometimes collide with
each other and break up into smaller fragments. Comets shed
dust as they roam the solar system. These 'break ups' result in
numerous small particles and fragments, called METEOROIDS,
which orbit the sun.
 Meteors, meteoroids and Meteorites
 Most meteoroids are small and rocky. When one approaches
Earth, it burns up as it goes through Earth's atmosphere. Thus
a METEOR, or shooting star, is formed.

Fireballs are larger meteoroids, roughly ranging in size

anywhere from a basketball to a Volkswagen. They also make
very impressive sky displays as they break into fragments and
burn up in their passage through Earth's atmosphere.
 Meteors, meteoroids and Meteorites
 Some meteoroids survive passage through Earth's
atmosphere and hit the ground. These are called
METEORITES.
 Comets Asteroids Meteors

Locati Comets orbit the sun, but most are

believed to inhabit in an area known as
Between the orbit of Mars
and Jupiter or are co-
Came from the Asteroid
belt.
on the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of
Pluto.
orbital with Jupiter (the
Jupiter trojans). Comet dust.

Nucleus- core structure

Compo Cometary nuclei are composed of an
amalgamation of rock, dust, water ice,
Asteroids near the sun  Iron and Nickel
composed of carbon while  chondrites, composed
sition and frozen carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, methane, and ammonia.
the ones faraway of silicon materials
composed of silicate rocks  Stony Iron

travel around the Sun in a

Orbit Comets go around the Sun in a highly
elliptical orbit. Around the sun variety of orbits and at
various speeds.
 Comets

 We often call them ‘snowballs’.

 These cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust are approximately
the size of a small town.
 The gases and dust form an gigantic tail that stretches away from the sun
for millions of kilometers.
 They can be short period comets (with orbital periods up to 200 years) and
long-period comets with orbital period of over 200 years.
Famous comets that pass by
the earth
 1. Halley’s Comet
Last flyby: 1986
Next flyby: 2061

It’s probably the most recognizable passing object in the sky. This short-period comet is one of the
most famous short-term comets (it completes its orbit in less than 200 years). Halley’s most famous
appearance occurred shortly before the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conquerer. It is said
that William felt the comet heralded his success. In any case, the comet was depicted on the
Bayeux Tapestry, a beautiful Romanesque art, which chronicles the invasion – in William’s honor.
Halley’s Comet visits the inner solar system every 75-76 years.
 2. Hale-Bopp
Last flyby: 1997
Next flyby: around 4385
It is one of the most spectacular naked eye comets in history and one of the most observable comets
for several decades. It was discovered in 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale in New Mexico and
Thomas Bopp in Arizona. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the
previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811. This long-period comet will be visible with large
telescopes until around 2020. It remains the largest comet ever observed.
The advent of Hale Bopp led to a bizarre and tragic human event – 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate
cult in San Diego, US, marked the arrival by committing suicide.
3. Lovejoy
Last flyby: 2011
Next flyby: 2633

Comet Lovejoy was one of the brightest and most active comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997.
Lovejoy passed closest to the sun on January 30, 2015, when it was releasing water at the rateof 20 tons
per second.
The team observed the atmosphere of the comet around this time when it was brightest and most active.
This long-period comet released large amounts of alcohol (the same type is used in alcoholic beverages)
as well as a type of sugar into space, according to new observations by an international team.
The finding strongly suggests that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules
necessary for the emergence of life.
In December of 2011, Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) surprised astronomers by traveling through the Sun’s
corona and survived an estimated 2,200,000° F (1,200,000° C)!
 Parts of a comet

As a comet approaches the sun, it warms up. During this warming, you can observe
several distinct parts:

 nucleus
 coma
 hydrogen envelope
 dust tail
 ion tail
 Parts of a comet

 The nucleus is the main, solid part of the comet. The nucleus is usually 1 to 10
kilometers in diameter, but can be as big as 100 kilometers. It can be composed of
rock.
 The coma is a halo of evaporated gas (water vapor, ammonia, carbon dioxide) and dust
that surrounds the nucleus. The coma is made as the comet warms up and is often
1,000 times larger than the nucleus. It can even become as big as Jupiter or Saturn
(100,000 kilometers). The coma and nucleus together form the head of the comet.
 Surrounding the coma is an invisible layer of hydrogen called the hydrogen envelope;
the hydrogen may come from water molecules. It usually has an irregular shape
because it is distorted by the solar wind. The hydrogen envelope gets bigger as the
comet approaches the sun.
 Parts of a comet

 The comet's dust tail always faces away from the sun. The tail is made of small (one
micron) dust particles that have evaporated from the nucleus and are pushed away from
the comet by the pressure of sunlight. The dust tail is the easiest part of the comet to
see because it reflects sunlight and because it is long, several million kilometers (several
degrees of the sky). The dust tail is often curved because the comet is moving in its orbit
at the same speed that the dust is moving away, much as water curves away from the
nozzle of a moving hose.
 Comets often have a second tail called an ion tail (also called the plasma or gas tail).
The ion tail is made of electrically charged gas molecules (carbon dioxide, nitrogen,
water) that are pushed away from the nucleus by the solar wind. Sometimes, the gas tail
disappears and later reappears when the comet crosses a boundary where direction of
the sun's magnetic field is reversed.
 Parts of a comet
Comet Halley as it
appeared in several
images from the 1910
apparition. The comet's
tail gets bigger as it
gets closer to the sun
and then decreases as it
moves away from the
sun.
PHOTO COURTESY
NASA/JPL
Parts of a comet
 Parts of a comet

 The comet's dust tail always faces away from the sun. The tail is made of small (one
micron) dust particles that have evaporated from the nucleus and are pushed away from
the comet by the pressure of sunlight. The dust tail is the easiest part of the comet to
see because it reflects sunlight and because it is long, several million kilometers (several
degrees of the sky). The dust tail is often curved because the comet is moving in its orbit
at the same speed that the dust is moving away, much as water curves away from the
nozzle of a moving hose.
 Comets often have a second tail called an ion tail (also called the plasma or gas tail).
The ion tail is made of electrically charged gas molecules (carbon dioxide, nitrogen,
water) that are pushed away from the nucleus by the solar wind. Sometimes, the gas tail
disappears and later reappears when the comet crosses a boundary where direction of
the sun's magnetic field is reversed.
Describe The Changes That Happens To A
Fragment From A Comet Or Asteroid As It
Enters The Earth’s Atmosphere
 If a fragment of an asteroid is in space it is a
meteoroid, if the meteoroid enters the earth's
atmosphere it is called a meteor, if the meteor
lands on earth it is called a meteorite.
What’s the Difference Between a
Meteoroid, a Meteor, and a
Meteorite?
It’s a cool night, and you look up at the stars
twinkling and serene in the dark sky.

Then a light streaks across the sky and is gone.

“Wow, a shooting star,” you think.

“A meteor. Wait...Or is it a meteorite? Or a
meteoroid?”
 What’s the Difference Between a Meteoroid, a Meteor,
and a Meteorite?

 It is a meteor. A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the sky
when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material enters the
atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of the frictional
heating from the piece’s collision with the atoms and molecules in the
atmosphere.
 Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, it
floats through interplanetary space and is called a meteoroid.
 What’s the Difference Between a Meteoroid, a Meteor,
and a Meteorite?

 Most meteoroids that enter the atmosphere burn up completely as

meteors.
 In some cases, however, the meteoroid does not completely burn up,
and the object actually makes it to Earth’s surface.
 The chunk that has survived its fiery journey is called a meteorite.
 A small body starts its life as a meteoroid floating through space
between the planets until it makes a bright streak of light in Earth’s
atmosphere as a meteor and then, if it isn’t consumed by frictional
heating, finally lands on the ground as a meteorite.
 Meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite: How are they
related?

Do superstitions about comets, asteroids, and meteors

have scientific basis?
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