Small Objects In The Solar System
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
HOW DO SCIENTISTS CLASSIFY SMALL OBJECTS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM?
- Based on sizes, compositions, and orbits
- There are 4 major categories, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids
Photo by European Southern Observatory
AREAS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
- The Asteroid belt-a region between Mars and Jupiter
- Kuiper belt-Beyond Neptune's orbit
- Oort Cloud-Beyond the Kuiper belt
Photo by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
DWARF PLANETS
- They have enough gravity to pull themselves into spheres
- Dwarf planets can have moons
- Any dwarf planet that is beyond Neptune is called a plutoid
COMETS
- Loose collections of ice, dust, and rocky particles
- Orbits can be very long, narrow ellipses
- Most originate in the Oort cloud
- Close to the sun energy in sunlight turns the ice into gas
- Most comets have two tails
- Approaching the sun it heats up and glows
ASTEROIDS
- Irregular, rocky objects that orbit the sun
- Too small and numerous to be a planet or dwarf planet
- Constantly finding more asteroids
- Most asteroids are small
- Asteroids orbit the sun in the asteroid belt
METEOROIDS
- Chunks of rock or dust smaller than asteroids
- Some form when asteroids collide
- Others form when comets break up
- Entering Earths atmosphere, friction with the air creates heat and produces a streak of light
- A meteor occurs when it passes through an area with many meteoroids
