Comets Asteroids &

MeteorsAstronomy Chapter 2.5

Pages 80-83

• “Dirty snowballs”

• Chunks of ice and rock

• Very long and narrow elliptical orbits

Comet

1. Coma: gas and dust from the inner layer

2. Nucleus: central part of a comet

3. Tail: gas and dust trail of comet.

Parts of a Comet

• Sun melts the ice and dust into gas and forms the coma.

• Solar wind pushes the gas and dust away from the sun forming the tail

Halley’s comet every76 Years (2062)

Comet

• Terrestrial objects too small and numerous to be planets.– Over 10,000

• Ceres is a dwarf planet

• An asteroid might have made the dinosaurs extinct.

Asteroids

• Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.Asteroids

• A chunk of rock drifting in space

• Usually from a comet or asteroid.

Meteoroid

• Meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up due to friction leaving a streak of light.

• Shooting Star

Meteor

• Meteor that is too big to burn up

• Hits Earth’s surface• Usually made of iron

and nickel.

Meteorite

What to Work On• Read textbook pages 80-83• Answer Section Review questions 1-4 on

page 83.

DUE: Friday, April 13th