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