Meteoroids! Asteroids!

Comets!

Oh, my!

What makes up our Solar System?

• The sun

• Planets

• Moons

• Asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter)

• Kuiper Belt

• Lots of space

• All sorts of bits and pieces of rock, ice and

dust

Meteorite, Meteoroid, Meteor -

What’s the difference?

Meteorite vs. Meteoroid

• Meteoroid = a small rock or rocky

grainrock located in space

• Meteorite = a small rock or rocky grain that

strikes Earth’s surface

• So the difference is just based on where

the rock is the location

Meteor

• Referred to as a

“Shooting Star”

• When a meteoroid

enters Earth’s

atmosphere, friction

causes them to burn

up, producing a

streak of light

Where do they come from?

How big are they?

• Pieces of rock that broke off other objects

• Sizes range from as small as a pebble or

as big as a boulder

Are they dangerous?

• Most meteoroids disintegrate before

reaching the earth by burning up in Earth’s

atmosphere

• Some leave a trail that lasts several

minutes

• Large ones can cause damage

Flagstaff, Arizona

• 49,000 years ago

• Meteorite about 150

feet in diameter

• Weighed 650 pounds

• Energy = 2.5 million

tons of dynamite

• 4000 feet wide, 650

feet deep

• Still visible today

Barringer Meteorite Crater

Comets

• Bodies in space made up of ice, dust,

small gritty particles

• Sometimes called “dirty snowballs”

• When close to the sun, ice vaporizes,

producing a spectacular streak of gas,

referred to as a “tail”

• Many in a regular orbit around the sun

Comets

Where do comets come from?

• Many ordinate in a region called the Oort

cloud which is located beyond the orbit of

the dwarf planet Pluto

• Others originate in the Kuiper Belt beyond

the orbit of Neptune

• This region is filled with billions of comets

Popular Comets

• Comet Hale-Bopp

• Halley’s Comet

• Comet Kohoutek

A Comet’s Tail

Asteroids

• An irregularly shaped

rocky object in space

(like a space potato)

• May be the shattered

remains of objects left

over from the time

when the planets

were formed

How big are asteroids?

• Larger than meteoroids

• (In fact, the main difference between

meteoroids and asteroids is their size.)

• Size ranges from 10 feet across to bigger

than a mountain

Asteroids

• Approx. 150,000 asteroids in the Solar

System

• Most are in a band that orbit the sun

between Mars and Jupiter (Asteroid Belt)

• Why are there all of those asteroids

between Mars and Jupiter and not another

planet?