3. COMETS
ī§ Orbit the sun
ī§ Can lead to meteor showers on
Earth
ī§ Usually visible only at sunrise or
sunset
4. COMETS
ī§ We can see a number of comets with the
naked eye when they pass close to the sun
because their comas and tails reflect sunlight
or even glow because of energy they absorb
from the sun.
ī§ However, most comets are too small or too
faint to be seen without a telescope.
5.
6. HEAD AND COMA
ī§ Nucleus
ī§ As a comet gets closer to the sun,
the ice on the surface of the nucleus
begins turning into gas, forming a
cloud known as the coma.
7. WHY DOES THE COMA APPEARS
BRIGHT?
ī§ Reflection of the sunlight
ī§ Emission of electromagnetic
radiation
8. THE TAIL
ī§ Can be 150 million
kilometers in length
ī§ Emitted from the nucleus
ī§ Gas and dust
9. THE TAIL
ī§ Gas tail
ī§ Composed of ion blown out away from the sun
ī§ Bluer, narrow and straight
ī§ Solar wind
ī§ Dust tail
ī§ Dust particles
ī§ Whiter, diffuse and curved
ī§ Liberated from the nucleus
10. THE TAIL
ī§ Radiation from the sun pushes dust
particles away from the coma, forming a
dust tail
ī§ Charged particles from the sun convert
some of the comet's gases into ions,
forming an ion tail
ī§ Comet tails always point away from the sun
18. BEGINNING OF ASTEROIDS
Several larger bodies once
coexisted in close proximity
and their collisions produced
numerous smaller ones.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23. METEOROIDS
ī§ Rockyâmetallic objects less than 100
meters
ī§ Smaller bodies in between the planets
ī§ Several hundred tons of meteoroids
enter the Earthâs atmosphere each day
24.
25. METEOROIDS
ī§ While heated to incandescence by
atmospheric friction during their passage
through the atmosphere, they are
termed meteors.
ī§ A fragment that survives to hit the ground
is known as a meteorite.
33. TWO TYPES OF METEORS
Sporadic
ī§ orbital paths intersect that of Earth in
random directions
Meteor Shower
ī§ the remains of old comets that have left lots
of small particles and dust in a common
orbit
34. METEORS
Meteor craters
ī§ Barringer Meteor Crater in Northern
Arizona
ī§ 25, 000 years old
ī§ 4, 200 feet in diameter
ī§ Depth of 6,000 feet