small rocky bodies ranging in size minor members of the solar...minor members of the solar system...

Minor Members of the Solar System• In addition to the planets, there

are many other objects in our solar system

• Asteroids -

• small rocky bodies ranging in size from a grain of sand to 1000’s of km across.

• most orbit the sun in the “Astroid Belt” - an area between Mars and Jupiter

• some have irregular orbits that even bring them close to earth

Minor Members of the Solar System

• Comets -

• pieces of rocky and metallic materials held together by frozen gases

• gases may be water, methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide.

• most comets travel in elliptical orbits around the sun

• as a comet approaches the sun, these ices vaporize producing the coma and possibly a tail.

Minor Members of the Solar System

• Comets usually come from two main areas of the outer solar system -

• Kuiper Belt -

• location of comets with short orbital periods

• Oort Cloud -

• spherical area around the solar system

• contains comets which are distributed in all directions

Minor Members of the Solar System• Meteoroids - small solid

particle traveling through space

• Come from -

1. Extra material not used to create the planets and moons

2. Material from the astroid belt

3. Solid remains of old comets

Minor Members of the Solar System

• Meteor - a meteoroid that has entered and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere

• Meteorite - a meteoroid that reaches Earth’s surface.