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Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites & Comets

Lesson 4

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What’s the difference between an

ASTEROID �and a METEOROID

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What is an Asteroid?

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  • Asteroids are essentially bits and pieces of space dirt that did not form into planets
  • They are large objects however not large enough to be considered planets
  • Their shapes are irregular
    • Most of them were formed from either:
      • being broken apart from other larger asteroids
      • merged together through light contact

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METEOROIDS

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What is a Meteoroid?

  • A meteoroid is a much smaller piece of dirt or rock than an asteroid or comet

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Meteoroid and Meteor

  • Meteoroids travel through space and sometimes they enter into the earth’s atmosphere
    • If they do, they will often light up from the friction that exists between the rock and the gases within the earth’s atmosphere
      • at this point a meteoroid is considered a meteor
        • (often referred to as a shooting star due to the bright tail light that is emitted from the burning rock)

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Meteorite

  • If any of the meteor remains or does not burn up and lands on the earth’s surface the meteor would then be considered a meteorite

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  • In summary, the names “meteoroid”, “meteor” and “meteorite” are based solely on their position within space or the earth’s atmosphere.

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“Meteoroid”, “Meteor” and “Meteorite”

The names “meteoroid”, “meteor” and “meteorite” are based solely on their position within space or the earth’s atmosphere

METEOROID

METEOR

METEORITE

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COMETS

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Comets

  • A large piece of frozen gases, rock & dust
  • Comets are frozen because of where they reside within our solar system
  • They are located at the very edge beyond the �dwarf planet Pluto in two locations:
      • Kuiper belt
      • Oort cloud

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Comets

  • Sometimes two comets will collide putting them in a different orbit that allows them to come closer to the sun

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Comets

  • When a comet gets near the sun it begins to heat up

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  • It forms a “coma”
    • the long streaked white tail that they are known for

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Comets

  • The most popular comet to date is Halley’s Comet last spotted in 1986

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Meteor Showers 101

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What is the difference???

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