remnants of rock and ice asteroid: a rocky leftover planetesimal comet: an icy leftover planetesimal...
Post on 20-Dec-2015
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Remnants of Rock and Ice
• Asteroid: a rocky leftover planetesimal
• Comet: an icy leftover planetesimal
• Meteoroid: a planetesimal or other object that lands on Earth– Meteor (shooting star): a flash of light caused
by a meteoroid entering the atmosphere– Meteorite: a piece of meteoroid that reaches the
ground (rocky or metallic material)
Questions:
• Where did all the leftover planetesimals outside the belt go?
• Why are there Trojan Asteroids?
• Why are there asteroids in the belt instead of another planet?
Comets
• Comets melt when they come within 5 AU of the Sun.
• Ice sublimates forming the coma (gas and dust atmosphere)
• Two tails caused by material from coma
• Dust tail caused by sunlight and plasma tail caused by solar wind