Other Solar System Objects

1. Other Solar System Objects Chapter 28.4

2. Kuiper Belt • Kuiper Belt • Lying outside of Neptune's orbit (40AU) • Eris – example of planetary bodies similar to Pluto • Should it be a tenth planet? • Objects most likely formed in this area • Asteroid Belt lies between Jupiter and Mars • Thought that planets never formed due to gravitational pull of Jupiter

3. How about Pluto? • Made of rock and ice • Different than both terrestrial and gas planets • Long orbit • Crosses Neptune’s orbit • Hasn’t been seen to make a complete orbit yet • 3 moons with orbits at sharp angles to the elliptical plane

4. New classification • Dwarf planet • Has its own gravity • Spherical • Orbits the sun • Includes • Pluto • Eris • Ceres – in Asteroid built • Many more objects are under debate

5. Asteroids • Thousands in the asteroid belt • Rocky, irregular shaped, pitted bodies • Many have small satellites orbiting them • Fragments of asteroid • Meteoroid – small fragment of an asteroid • Meteor – streak of light as meteoroid passes through earth’s atmosphere and burns • Shooting star • Meteorite – hits the earth

7. Comets • Small icy bodies • Extremely eccentric orbits • 1 to 10 km in diameter • Occasionally passes into the inner solar system • Pulled by gravity of objects in the solar system

9. Comets • They come close to the sun • Begins to evaporate • Forms a head and one or two tails • Solid core surrounded by gas and dust particles • Blown by the sun’s radiation, causing the bright tail

10. Meteor Shower • Earth enters an area where the comet had passed • Particles left behind from the comet burn as they enter the earth’s atmosphere