Information for this PowerPoint obtained from NSTA Online Module Solar System Asteroids Comets and Meteorites NASA ESA Windows2Universeorg This is a meteorite that had been broken off of Mars from a large impact meteorite It spent millions of years in space before landing ID: 469499
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Slide1
Asteroids, meteorites, and comets
Information for this PowerPoint obtained from:
NSTA Online Module: Solar System: Asteroids, Comets, and Meteorites NASAESAWindows2Universe.orgSlide2
This is a meteorite that had been broken off of Mars from a large impact meteorite. It spent millions of years in space before landing in Antarctica.Slide3
Meteor Showers and CometsSlide4
Common Characteristics of Comets, Meteoroids, and Asteroids
Most are “leftovers” from the formation of the
Solar System.Most didn’t form into planets themselves, nor were they part of the planets that did form.Each contains rocky material.Slide5
Differences in Comets, Meteoroids, and Asteroids
Comets
have a great amount of icy material covering them because they are found at the far edge of the Solar System.Meteoroids are very small rocky bodies that are found mostly near the orbits of planets. In fact, the meteor showers that we observe from Earth’s surface occur as Earth passes through a large concentration of them.
Asteroids
contain
little icy material and are much larger than comets
. Most are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.Slide6
AsteroidsWas there a missing planet between Mars and Jupiter?
The space between Mars and Jupiter where all of the asteroids are is called the
ASTEROID BELT.Slide7
Asteroid Belt LocationSlide8
A Closer Look At Asteroids
Eros, the second largest near- Earth asteroid is 33 km long and 13 km wide.
Asteroid Belt MotionAsteroids are objects composed of a combination of metallic and rocky material. One of their defining characteristics is that they are much smaller than planets.Slide9
Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater)Winslow, ArizonaSlide10
Meteors, Meteorites, Meteoroids
The name depends on the location
.Meteoroid-small bits of debris from an asteroid or comet that orbit the Sun.
Meteor
-When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of a planet at high speed and
friction causes it to
burn up
.
Meteorite
-If the meteoroid does not burn up completely in the atmosphere and collides with the surface
.
It is the piece that is left.Slide11
Comet Debris-Meteor Shower SimulationSlide12
The meteorites we find on Earth could have been which of the following?
material left over from when the Solar System formed
broken off piece of an asteroid piece of a star that has died and fallen to Earth debris trail from a comet part of a terrestrial planet or the MoonSlide13
What happens to meteors as they fall through Earth's atmosphere?
They fall through the atmosphere without any change in size, mass, or appearance.
They burn up due to friction as they move through the atmosphere at high speeds. They combine together due to gravity to form larger pieces of debris. They get stuck in the upper part of the atmosphere and never reach the surface.Slide14
A Closer Look at Comets
The
Mawangdui silk, a 300 B.C. Chinese text of comet observations.Slide15
Comet Composition and Size
Comet
KohoutekComet Hale-Bopp
Rocky Core
Gases condense on the
surface and freeze
Comets are basically
dirty snowballs!Slide16
A Comet’s OrbitWhat characteristics do comets and asteroids share?
Both contain rocky material. Both originate from the edge of the Solar System.
Both were formed from planets.Their orbits are much more erratic than planets.Slide17
The Life of a Comet
The Kuiper
BeltThe outer edge of our Solar System is not empty. There are many, many huge spheres of ice and rock out near Pluto's orbit. Astronomers call this huge group of planetoids "Kuiper Belt Objects", or "KBOs" for short. The Kuiper Belt is a bit like the asteroid
belt, but much farther from the Sun. See how they are out past Neptune and Pluto?
See an animation of the life of a comet
.Slide18
Flight of a Comet
EPOXI mission has successfully flown by comet Hartley 2.Slide19
Mercury's Caloris Basin taken by Mariner 10 in 1974. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.Slide20
Densely cratered surface of Mercury as seen by Mariner 10 in 1974. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.Slide21
Impact craters near Mars' Promethei Terra region (top) and the Acheron Fossae region (bottom). Images courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.Slide22
Heavily cratered surface of Mars' polar region. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.Slide23
The Mare Oriental region of the Earth's Moon shows several impact craters. Image courtesy: NASA.Slide24
The heavily cratered South Pole of the Moon as seen from the Clementine spacecraft. Image courtesy: NASA. Slide25
What could’ve created these craters?
Volcanic Processes
Comets
Meteoroids
AsteroidsSlide26
Meteoroid Hitting the Moon
Click for VideoSlide27
Collisions With Planets
Mosaic of images showing the evolution of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 G (a comet) impact site on Jupiter in 1994. Images not to scale. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
STScI.Slide28
Impacting Earth
Clearwater Lakes in Quebec, Canada.
Created by an asteroid 290 million years ago.Wolf Creek crater in Australia.Created by an asteroid impact approximately 300,000 years ago.Slide29
Summary
Comets
are icy bodies composed of rock, dust, and ice.Asteroids are large bodies somewhat similar to planets.Meteoroids are pieces of these larger bodies that have been show to be the oldest bodies in the Solar System.