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OTHER SOLAR SYSTEM
OBJECTS...
There are many denizens of the
Solar System in addition to Planets...
• Most likely composed of various dusty and
rocky particles and frozen gases like water, methane, and ammonia. (Tutorial)
• May come from Oort cloud
or Kuiper belt
Oort cloud • Hypothetical
"cloud" of orbiting comets from which an
occasional comet may be pulled by gravitational forces
to orbit sun more closely.
Kuiper belt • orbiting "cloud" of comets near the orbit of Neptune
Comet Hyakutake
• Seen by most any interested observer on
Earth in late winter and early spring of 1996.
GO TO Dale Ireland's Comet Page FOR
LOTS OF INFO AND PICTURES
Comet Hale-Bopp
• Visible to most interested observers in
early 1997, especially March and April.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy
collided with Jupiter in 1994... see MORE
at...
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Collision
with Jupiter Home Page
Structure of Comets
From "Views
of the Solar System" |
The Nucleus,
or solid, part of comet
The Coma, a
cloud of vaporized gases formed by melting from the heat of the sun - Only forms as comet
gets close enough for temperature to be raised by sun
The Tail,
formed by the solar wind "blowing" the coma away from the sun into a tail-like
shape
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Asteroids |
Mostly "planetessimals,"
they are smaller than planets and most moons, but can be large by human standards.
Most, however, are very small. |
The Largest
Asteroids
Name |
|
Other Designations |
| Ceres |
940 km |
Dwarf
Planet |
| Pallas |
523 km |
|
| Vesta |
501 km |
|
| Juno |
244 km |
|
| Gaspra |
19 x 11 km |
|
| Ida |
52 km long, with a moon |
|
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Meteoroids
|
• A piece of
space debris that eventually
falls to Earth or another body in the solar system. • Usually pieces broken off of comets and asteroids.
• Sometimes whole comets or asteroids.
• Some are a piece of moon or planet, knocked
off by a meteor collision with that body.
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|
Meteor |
A meteoroid that burns up in Earth's
atmosphere
|
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Meteorite |
A meteoroid that doesn't burn up and
hits Earth's surface
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Meteor Crater,
AZ,
was determined by
Gene Shoemaker to be caused by a meteor,
rather than a volcano, earlier in the 20th century....
From
"Views of the Solar System"
[Comet Shoemaker-Levy
Collision with Jupiter Home Page] |
Is this the Dinosaur Killer?
From "Views
of the Solar System" |
A 300 km diameter crater has been
located and identified, half on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and half in the Gulf of
Mexico, and tentatively dated to be 65 million years old: |
Is there life on Mars?
UPDATED: 10/05/08
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