Comets

1
(No Transcript)
2
Comets

• Tacoma Astronomical Society

3
(No Transcript)
4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
Comet Anatomy
8
(No Transcript)
9
Short-period Comets (comets with an orbital
period under 200 years)
Long-period Comets (comets with an orbital period
over 200 years and up to 30 million years)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Famous Comets

• HALLEY'S COMET
• SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9
• COMET LINEAR
• COMET HALE-BOPP

76 years
2380 years
13
Comet Exploration

• NASA and Cornell Contour
• Lockheed and UW StarDust
• ESA Giotto

14
Why study comets?

• They act as cosmic refrigerators
• Preserve the physical and chemical makeup of the
  solar system for 4.6 billion years
• Provide a peek at material from the beginning of
  the solar system
• Each comet has its own spectrographic fingerprint

15
Comets and Meteor Showers
16

• Meteor Showers2003
• Shower Date
• Lyrids Apr 22
• Eta Aquarids May 5
• Delta Aquarids Jul 28
• Perseids Aug 12
• Orionids Oct 21
• Taurids Nov 3
• Leonids Nov 18
• Geminids Dec 14

17
Comet TAS Ingredients

• Dust and dirt
• Water
• Frozen Carbon dioxide
• Ammonia
• Organic material

18

• For information on
• Schedules
• Special Events
• Membership
• Youth programs
• Visit us at
• www.tas-online.org

19
(No Transcript)