Notes 14-5

1. Notes 14-5 Comets, Asteroids, Meteors

2. Comets • Loose collection of ice, dust, and small rocky particles whose orbits are usually very long, narrow ellipses • Like a “dirty snowball” that’s as large as a mountain!

3. Structure of a Comet • The main parts of a comet are the nucleus, the coma, and the tail. The nucleus is deep within the coma. Most comets have two tails—a bluish gas tail and a white dust tail.

4. Comet Orbits • Most comets revolve around the sun in very long, narrow orbits. Gas and dust tails form as the comet approachesthe sun.

5. Where do comets come from? • The Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud

6. Asteroids • Too small and too numerous to be considered planets • Most are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter • Left over pieces in early solar system that never came together to form planets

7. The Asteroid Belt

8. Meteors • Meteoroid- chunk of rock or dust in space that come from comets or asteroids, caused craters on moon • Meteor- streak of light in sky created due to friction with air if meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere (shooting star) • Meteorite- meteoroids that strike Earth’s surface

9. Meteor Shower