Welcome

to
SPACE
The inner
solar
system
(1900)
The inner
solar
system
(2000)
Near Earth Objects
 Comets,
Asteroids,
and Meteors
Comets
• Icy bodies that orbit the sun
• Comes from the Kuiper belt or
the Oort cloud
• Composed of ice, frozen gases
(ammonia, methane, and CO2),
and other organic compounds
The Oort Cloud
• Discovered in 1950 Jan Oort, beyond Pluto
Kuiper Belt
• Similar to Asteroid belt but found beyond
neptune.

Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
Comets
• Diameter ranges from 1-10 km
• Orbits the sun every 75-
100,000++ years
Comet Structure
• Nucleus
–10 km “Dirty Snowball”
• Coma
–Cloud of evaporated ices and ions
–may be 100,000 km in diameter
• Tail
–Always points away from Sun
 “A star with hair”

Ion tail pointing directly

away from the Sun. Note
Dust tail slightly curved, brighter
the slightly bluish color.
 Not to scale!
Sun
coma (a cloud of gas)
(~104 km)

tail (dust)

nucleus
(~10 km)
tail (ions)
~107 km

Note the two tails

Types of Comets
• Short-period comets
− originate in Kuiper Belt
beyond Neptune
− Return to inner solar
system every few
years
• Long-period comets
− Originate in the Oort
Kuiper Belt
Cloud at the outer
Oort Cloud
limits of the
heliosphere
− Return orbits over
decades to thousands
of years
Comet Halley
Hyakutake
Hale-Bopp
Comet West
Comet of 1577
Asteroids
• Rocky objects
• Contain silicates, iron, and
nickel
• Orbit the sun in 1-100 years
• Have a diameter of 1-100 km
 Asteroids originate from
the main Asteroid Belt
found between Mars and
Jupiter
 Asteroids
Apollo

Trojans
 Asteroids
• Rocky celestial bodies with elliptical orbits
around the sun.
• Made up of small chunks of irregularly shaped
rocks and iron which are believed to have
been leftover of the formation of the solar
system about 4.6 billion years ago.
• Called minor planets or planetoids because of
their likeness to moons and planets.
Asteroid Belt
• A 350 million-mile space between Mars and
Jupiter.
• Separates outer and inner planets.
– Inner belt- 250 million miles away from the sun
and contains asteroids that are made up of
metals.
– Outer belt- rocky asteroids that 250 million miles
beyond the sun and darker than those in the inner
belt due to their composition, carbon.
Classification of Asteroids
• CERES (after Roman goddess of agriculture),
the largest asteroid with a diameter of 940
km. It is the first to have been discovered by
an Italian astronomer, Giusseppe Piazzi on Jan.
1, 1801. In 2006, along with Pluto, Eris,
Makemake and Haumea, Ceres was given the
status dwarf planets.
Classification of Asteroids
• Pallas, the second to the largest with a diameter
of 540 km.
• Vesta, next with 510 km diameter.
• Ida is about 36 miles and known to have little
moon called Dactyl.
• C-type- carbonaceous asteroids that are greyish
in color
• S-type- Silicaceous, made up of iron and
magnesium
• M-type or metallic, which are rich in nickel-iron ,
which made them reddish in color.
Classification of Asteroids
• ATHENS – lie outside the asteroid belt, near
the orbit of Mars including Ceres, Pallas, Juno
and Vesta.
• APOLLOS - lie near Earth, which sometimes
crossed Earth’s orbit.
• Trojans- known to dwell along Jupiter’s orbital
path and lie within the asteroid belts.
What would happen if a 10 km Asteroid collided
with Earth?

The Good Earth, Chapter 3: Near-Earth Objects

 What would happen if a 10 km NEO collided
with Earth?

1.Fireball racing through atmosphere

2.People at impact site, seconds to live
3.Air blast would flatten everything for
hundreds of kilometers in all directions
4.Massive earthquake at collision
5.Ocean impact would produce giant
tsunami hundreds of meters high

The Good Earth, Chapter 3: Near-Earth Objects

 What would happen if a 10 km NEO collided
with Earth?

1.Molten rock from collision would rain

down, start massive wildfires
2.Huge cloud of dust blocks sunlight,
cools planet for months, kills off most
vegetation
3.Gases from impact – sulfur dioxide,
water vapor – added to atmosphere

The Good Earth, Chapter 3: Near-Earth Objects

 Alvarez Hypothesis

• Posits that the mass extinction of

the dinosaurs and many other living things
during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction
event was caused by the impact of a
large asteroid (10 km in diameter) on
the Earth 65 million years ago.
• Proposed by Father and son Luis and Walter
Alvarez in 1980s.

The Good Earth, Chapter 3: Near-Earth Objects

 Alvarez Hypothesis Claim and Evidence

• A large extraterrestrial collided with the

Earth, its impact throwing up enough dust to
cause the climatic change.
• The discovery of high contents of iridium in
oceanic sedimentary layers in different parts
of the world such as Italy, Denmark and New
Zealand during the late 1970s.
 Barringer’s Crater

An iron meteorite 100 feet across and 70,000 tons slamed into the Earth at about
43,000mph in the Arizona desert near Flagstaff 40,000 years ago. Barringer
Crater is 4,100 feet wide and 571 feet deep.
Arizona’s Meteor Crater, the most
famous example
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites
• Small pieces of
space debris
(usually parts of
comets or asteroids)
that are on a
collision course with
the Earth are called
meteoroids
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites

• When meteoroids
enter the Earth's
atmosphere they
are called
meteors.
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites

• If the meteors
survive and strike
the surface of the
Earth they are
called meteorites.
 Meteors - Shooting Stars
• Most meteoroids are tens of meters in
diameter or less.
• Enter Earth’s atmosphere and become
meteors or “shooting stars”.
• Most meteors are tiny specks of dust.
• Larger meteors produce fireballs.

Hannover, 1995 Perseid Shower, Peekskill,

• What are meteor showers???
- result when the Earth encounters
cometary orbits
• The annual nature of meteor showers hints
to the nature of the orbits of meteoroids.
 Sporadic Meteors
• These are the meteors that can be seen on
any given night

• They are not associated with any particular

meteor shower

• They come from random directions in the sky

 Meteor Showers
• Heavy displays of meteors that recur from year to
year
• Caused by small fragments of comet debris entering
the earth’s atmosphere at extremely high
speeds…when the Earth’s orbit & the comet’s orbit
intersect at some point
• ‘Shower meteors’ come from the same general point
in the sky…
• The radiant of a shower is the point in the sky from
which the meteors appear to come
 Meteor Showers and Comets
• Occur on a regular schedule
Some Meteor Showers
Name Date of Meteors / Hour Parent
Maximum at Max

Quadrantids Jan. 4 110 -

Perseids Aug. 12 68 Comet 1862 III

Orionids Oct. 21 30 Comet Halley

Leonids Nov. 17 10 Comet P/Tempel-Tuttle

Geminids Dec. 14 58 3200 Phaethon

 Coming to a Theater Near You
Quadrantids............January 2- 4.............30
Lyrids.................April 20 - 22.............8
Eta Aquarids...........May 2 - 7................10
Delta Aquarids.........July 20 to August 14.....15
Perseids...............July 29 to August 18.....40
Draconids..............Oct 10....................?
Orionids...............Oct 17-24................15
Taurids................Oct 20 to Nov 25..........8
Leonids................Nov 14-19 ................6
Andromedids............Nov 15 to Dec 6...........?
Geminids...............Dec 8 - 15...............50
Ursids.................Dec 19 - 22..............12
Ariertids..............May 29 - June 17.........40
Zeta Perseids..........June 1-15................30
Beta Taurids...........June 23 - July 7.........20

[Source: Dr. Sten Odenwald, Astronomy Café]

 Main types of meteorites
• Chondrites
–Carbonaceous
–Non-carbonaceous
• Achondrites
• Iron
• Stony-Iron
 Chondrites
• Rocky, inhomogeneous, contain round
“chondrules”

Microscope image
 Carbonaceous Chondrites contain
complex organic molecules
• Amino acids, fatty acids,
other so-called
“building blocks of life”
• Did building blocks of
life come to Earth from
space?
• Did life itself come to
Earth from space?
– “Panspermia” theory
 Carbonaceous Chondrites
May contain organic compounds that may hold
keys to how life developed in the Solar System.
 Iron meteorites
• Made of iron and nickel
• Pits made during atmospheric entry (hot!)
 Iron Meteorites
primarily iron and nickel
Iron meteorites: from core of
differentiated asteroids
Crystalization pattern of the iron is unique
 Stony-Iron meteorites - the prettiest
• Crystals of olivene (a rock mineral) embedded in iron
• From boundary between core and mantle of large
asteroids?
Achondrites: from Mars and Moon
• From Mars:
– Tiny inclusions have same elements and isotope
ratios as Martian atmosphere (measured by
spacecraft on Mars)
• From the Moon:
– Astronauts brought back rocks from several
regions on the Moon
– Some achondrites match these rock types exactly
Meteorite ALH84001