Interplanetary Bodies

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Interplanetary Bodies
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Asteroids

• Solid bodies having no atmosphere
• Have well determined orbits
• More than 2000 in our solar system

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Asteroids
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Other info

• Located mostly between Mars and Jupiter
• Can be 600 miles in diameter or as small as a
  pebble
• All together, the asteroid pieces wouldnt equal
  a planet

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• The largest asteroid by far is 1 Ceres. It
  is 933 km in diameter and contains about 25 of
  the mass of all the asteroids combined

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Meteoroids

• Chunks of matter that cross paths of the planets
• May hit earths atmosphere and burn up. The
  streaks of light are called meteors. Any chunk
  that strikes earth is called a meteorite.

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Meteorite
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Meteoroids

• Also called shooting stars
• In 1992 a football sized meteorite fell through
  the trunk of a car in Peekskill, NY

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Meteor Showers
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Impact Craters

• Over 120 impact craters and basins have been
  found on earth
• Meteor Crater in Arizona formed nearly 50,000
  yrs. Ago is 570 feet deep is one of the largest

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Chicxulub Basin

• Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula
• 190 miles wide
• Formed when a meteor struck earth about 65
  million years ago

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Yucatan Peninsula
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Comets

• Move in very elliptical orbits around the sun
• Have a solid nucleus covered in ice that produces
  a cloud that trails behind it as it goes around
  the sun
• Tail always points away from the sun

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Structure of a Comet
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Comets

• A comet may be visible for weeks at a time
• Erickes Comet returns every 33 yrs.
• Halleys Comet returns every 76 yrs.

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Elliptical Orbit of a Comet
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West Comet

• West Comet

Halleys Comet