touring our solar system the minor members mrs. myers 2014
TRANSCRIPT
TOURING OUR SOLAR
SYSTEMTHE MINOR MEMBERS
Mrs. Myers 2014
MINOR MEMBERS
Asteroids: Microplanets
Small, rocky body Diameter ranges from a few hundred
km to less than 1 km
Most lie between orbits of Mars & Jupiter Orbital periods of 3-6 years
Minor Members
Irregular Orbits of Asteroids
Irregular Orbits of Asteroids
As seen by the Hubble telescope
Comets
MINOR MEMBERS
Small bodies Made of rocky and metallic pieces
Held together by frozen gases
Generally revolve about the sun in elongated orbits
Coma Fuzzy, gaseous component of comet’s head
Small glowing nucleus diameter of few km sometimes detected within coma
As approach sun Some develop tail Extends for millions of km Comet’s Tail Points Away from sun due to solar
winds
Comets
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MINOR MEMBERS
LIKE ASTEROIDS IN INNER SOLAR SYSTEM Kuiper Belt
Most Kuiper belt comets move in nearly circular orbits
Roughly lie in the same plane as the planets
Oort Cloud Form spherical shell around the solar system
Comets with long orbital periods
Appear distributed in all directions from the sun
Comets
MINOR MEMBERS
Meteoroid Small, solid particle that travels through space
Meteor Luminous phenomenon observed Meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere & burns up Shooting star
Meteorite Any portion of meteoroid that strikes Earth’s surface
Meteoroids
MINOR MEMBERS
Most originate from any one of the following sources Interplanetary debris not gravitationally swept up by planet’s
gravity during solar system formation
Material from the asteroid belt
Solid remains of comets that once traveled near Earth’s orbit
Meteoroids
MINOR MEMBERS
Some Resources
Cessna, A. geocentric model. Universe Today June 17, 2009, online retrieval March 29, 3014. http://www.universetoday.com/32607/geocentric-model/
Pearson Education, Inc. Prentice Hall Earth Science Home Page, Touring the Universe (2014). On line retrieval, March 14, 2014. http://phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=cuk&wcsuffix=9999