What is Charon? Pluto's moon Which of the following does NOT lend support to the idea that Pluto is a Kuiper-belt object? Pluto is regarded by many to be a planet. The number of comets in the Oort cloud is probably about a trillion What is the typical size of comets that enter the inner solar system? 10 km When was Pluto discovered? 80 years ago Why won't Pluto collide with Neptune? The two planets have an orbital resonance that prevents them from colliding. Where did comets that are now in the Oort cloud originally form? near the jovian planets Where did comets that are now in the Kuiper belt originally form? near the radius at which they orbit today Comets with extremely elliptical orbits, like comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, come from the Oort cloud. When do comets generally begin to form a tail? inside of Jupiter's orbit What part of a comet points most directly away from the Sun? the plasma tail Why does the plasma tail of a comet always point away from the Sun? The solar wind electromagnetically "blows" the ions directly away from the Sun. In order to have a comet named after you, you have to be one of the first three discoverers who report it to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Meteorites can come from all of the aboveĭ.) comets Halley's comet is named after the English scientist Edmund Halley because he calculated its orbit and predicted that it would return in 1758. ![]() ![]() Processed meteorites with low metal content probably are chunks of a larger asteroid that was shattered by a collision. Primitive meteorites can be distinguished from other meteorites and terrestrial rocks because they contain a noticeable fraction of pure metallic flakes. pea-size particle from a comet What characteristic distinguishes a meteorite from a terrestrial rock? all of the aboveĪ) A meteorite is usually covered with a dark crust from burning in Earth's atmosphere.ī) A meteorite usually has a high metal content.Ĭ) Meteorites have different isotope ratios of particular elements when compared to terrestrial rocks.ĭ) Meteorites contain rare elements, such as iridium, that terrestrial rocks do not. What is a meteorite? a fragment of an asteroid from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface What do we call a small piece of solar system debris found on Earth? meteorite A typical shooting star in a meteor shower is caused by a _ entering Earth's atmosphere. Why aren't small asteroids spherical in shape? The strength of gravity on small asteroids is less than the strength of the rock. How can we determine an asteroid's reflectivity? by comparing its infrared thermal emission to its visible-light reflection If we know the size of an asteroid, we can determine its density by determining its mass from its gravitational pull on a spacecraft, satellite, or planet. Why isn't there a planet where the asteroid belt is located? gravitational tugs from Jupiter prevented material from collecting together to form a planet. ![]() ![]() Why do we sometimes observe asteroids at the distances of the gaps in the asteroid belt? A gap is located at an average orbital distance, and asteroid orbits often have large eccentricities. The large gaps in the asteroid belt (often called Kirkwood gaps) are caused by orbital resonances with Jupiter. We know that there are large gaps in the average distances of asteroids from the Sun (within the asteroid belt) because we have plotted distributions of the orbital radii of the asteroids.
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