Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, and the Moon!

1. Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, and the Moon! By: Patrick, John, and Karl

2. What are Comets? • A comet is a big ball of ice that has a a tail following it. They are a mixture of both water and frozen gases. • All comets have a certain period of time until they are seen again like for example, Halley’s Comet which is only seen every 76 years. • Halley’s Comet was last seen at 1986 so it’s next appearance will be at 2062!

3. What are Asteroids? • Asteroids are large chunks of rock that look like giant boulders in space. • They are rocky objects that orbit the sun. • Asteroids range in many different sizes. They can have a diameter of 1000 km or they can be as small as a pebble. • Most asteroids can be found in the Main Asteroid Belt which stretches from the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. • Asteroids are thought to be the parts that never formed into the planet when the Big Bang happened.

4. What are Meteoroids? • Meteoroids are pieces of rock that are too small to be considered an asteroid or a comet. Most are smaller or the same size as a pebble. • They don’t really do a lot of damage to spacecraft or when they hit Earth. • They mostly come from asteroids that are broken apart when it hits another asteroid or another form of impact.

5. Fcftvgu . Video of a Meteor

6. Earth’s Moon • It is thought that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago in some giant impact involving Earth. • Just like Earth it has a crust, mantle, and a core. • The Moon also has volcanoes on its surface. • Lots of asteroids have crashed on the Moon creating deep craters on its surface. • The Moon’s gravitational pull affects the Ocean’s Tide. • It is Earth’s only natural satellite.

7. Earth’s Moon • The first manmade object to impact the moon was Luna 2 but that’s all it did. Just land on it. • The first photograph of the moon was Luna 3. • The Luna missions were all from the Soviets.

8. Earth’s Moon • Here are the missions from the U.S.A • The U.S.A made Apollo as competition to the Soviet’s Luna. • Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. He was commanding the Apollo 11 mission. • From that day on the U.S.A wanted to send more and more astronauts to the Moon.

9. Phases of the Moon • The phases of the Moon depend on the positions of the Earth, Moon, and the Sun. • For example if the Moon was directly beside the Earth on the right and the sunlight was also coming from that way, we would see a new moon. • Here is a simple diagram to make it simpler.

11. How an Eclipse happens • Like the phases of the moon, it all depends on the position of the Earth, Moon, and the Sun. • Since the Moon is closer to Earth than the Sun, it looks like they are the same size. • If the Moon completely covers up the sun in the sky, that is an eclipse. • The Background is a picture of an eclipse • Here is Another diagram to help you understand.