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ASTEROIDS, METEORITES, AND COMETS
Created by:Jennifer HollowayGrade 5 TeacherWesternport Elementary School
Information for this PowerPoint obtained from: • NSTA Online Module: Solar System: Asteroids, Comets, and Meteorites •NASA•ESA•Windows2Universe.org
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.
Meteor Showers and Comets
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.
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.
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.
Asteroid Belt Location
A Closer Look At Asteroids Eros, the second
largest near- Earth asteroid is 33 km long and 13 km wide.Asteroid Belt Motion
Asteroids are objects composed of a
combination of metallic and rocky material. One of their defining characteristics
is that they are much smaller than planets.
Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater)Winslow, Arizona
Meteors, Meteorites, MeteoroidsThe 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.
Comet Debris-Meteor Shower Simulation
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 Moon
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.
A Closer Look at Comets
The Mawangdui silk, a 300 B.C. Chinese text of comet observations.
Comet Composition and Size
Comet Kohoutek
Comet Hale-Bopp
•Rocky Core•Gases condense on the surface and freeze
Comets are basically dirty snowballs!
A Comet’s Orbit
What 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.
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.
What might you predict about the formation of asteroids, meteorites, and comets? Some of them could be the oldest
bodies in the Solar System. Asteroids, comets, and meteorites did
not form around the same time. They contain material that formed
from the planets. They formed at the same time as the
planets.
Flight of a Comet
EPOXI mission has successfully flown by comet Hartley 2.
Mercury's Caloris Basin taken by Mariner 10 in 1974. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Densely cratered surface of Mercury as seen by Mariner 10 in 1974. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Impact craters near Mars' Promethei Terra region (top) and the Acheron Fossae region (bottom). Images courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Heavily cratered surface of Mars' polar region. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The Mare Oriental region of the Earth's Moon shows several impact craters. Image courtesy: NASA.
The heavily cratered South Pole of the Moon as seen from the Clementine spacecraft. Image courtesy: NASA.
What could’ve created these craters?
Volcanic ProcessesCometsMeteoroidsAsteroids
Meteoroid Hitting the Moon
Click for Video
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.
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.
Which of the following are characteristics of a meteorite?
found on Earth’s surface after partially burning up in the atmosphere found between Mars and Jupiter have erratic orbits that bring them near the Sun originate in the outer Solar System composition can be rocky or metallic a smaller piece of another body such as a planet
Which of the following are the characteristics of an asteroid?
often found between Mars and Jupiter found on Earth’s surface after partially
burning up in the atmosphere originate in the outer Solar System a smaller piece of another body composition is similar to the terrestrial
planetsHave erratic orbits that bring them near the
Sun
Which of the following are characteristics of a comet? found on Earth’s surface after partially
burning up in the atmosphere often found in the outer Solar System found between Mars and Jupiter a smaller piece of another body have erratic orbits that bring them
near the Sun has an icy cover made of gases also
found in the gas giant planets
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.
