COMETS, ASTEROIDS AND

METEORS
Earth Science
• What are the parts of a typhoon?

• Describe how land forms and bodies of water affect the

formation of typhoon.
DESCRIBE THE FOLLOWING:

• Comet
• Asteroids
• Meteors/ Meteorites/ Meteoroids
 ASTEROIDS
• Asteroids are rocky fragments left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion
years ago.
• These rocky fragments are also called Minor Planets or Planetoids.
• Most asteroids orbit the sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter ( Asteroid Belt)
• Scientists think there are probably millions of asteroids, ranging widely in size from hundreds
of kilometers across to less than one kilometer (a little more than one-half mile) wide.
• Occasionally, asteroids' orbital paths are influenced by the gravitational tug of planets, which
cause their paths to alter.
• Scientists believe stray asteroids or fragments from earlier collisions have slammed into Earth
in the past, playing a major role in the evolution of our planet.
ASTEROID IDA AND ITS MOON DACTYL, IMAGED BY THE
GALILEO SPACECRAFT.
 COMETS

• Comets are relatively small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies and, like asteroids, they are left
over from the solar system formation process.
• Comets, however, are icy dirtballs that form in the outer solar system.
• The icy surface is embedded with dust, grit and particles from space.
• Many comets have elliptical orbits that cut across the orbits of the planets, taking them very
close to the sun and then swinging them far away, often past Pluto.
• The most distant comets may take more than 30 million years to complete one orbit.
• Comets with smaller orbital paths can take less than 200 years to orbit the sun, making them
more predictable.
 COMETS

• When far from the sun, comets are very cold, icy dirtballs. As they approach the sun, their
surfaces begin to warm and volatile materials vaporize. The vaporizing gases carry small dust
grains with them, which form an atmosphere of gas and dust and can look like a bright tail
when seen from Earth.
 METEORS, METEOROIDS AND METEORITES

• While travelling through space, asteroids sometimes collide with each other and break up into
smaller fragments. Comets shed dust as they roam the solar system. These 'break ups' result in
numerous small particles and fragments, called METEOROIDS, which orbit the sun.

Most meteoroids are small and rocky. When one approaches Earth, it burns up as it goes through
Earth's atmosphere. Thus a METEOR, or shooting star, is formed.

Fireballs are larger meteoroids, roughly ranging in size anywhere from a basketball to a
Volkswagen. They also make very impressive sky displays as they break into fragments and burn
up in their passage through Earth's atmosphere.

Some meteoroids survive passage through Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground. These are called
METEORITES.
 REPORT ACTIVITY NO. 1

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A COMET OR AN

ASTEROID HITS EARTH?
 COMETS

• We often call them ‘snowballs’.

• These cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust are approximately the size of a small
town.
• The gases and dust form an gigantic tail that stretches away from the sun for millions of
kilometers.
• They can be short period comets (with orbital periods up to 200 years) and long-period
comets with orbital period of over 200 years.
FAMOUS COMETS THAT PASS BY THE
EARTH
 1. Halley’s Comet
Last flyby: 1986

Next flyby: 2061

It’s probably the most recognizable passing object in the

sky. This short-period comet is one of the most famous short-
term comets (it completes its orbit in less than 200
years). Halley’s most famous appearance occurred shortly
before the 1066 invasion of England by William the
Conquerer. It is said that William felt the comet heralded his
success. In any case, the comet was depicted on the Bayeux
Tapestry, a beautiful Romanesque art, which chronicles the
invasion – in William’s honor.

Halley’s Comet visits the inner solar system every 75-76 years.
 2. Hale-Bopp
Last flyby: 1997

Next flyby: around 4385

It is one of the most spectacular naked eye comets in history

and one of the most observable comets for several decades. It
was discovered in 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale in
New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona. It was visible to
the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the
previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811. This long-
period comet will be visible with large telescopes until around
2020. It remains the largest comet ever observed.

The advent of Hale Bopp led to a bizarre and tragic human

event – 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in San Diego, US,
marked the arrival by committing suicide.
 3. Lovejoy
Last flyby: 2011
Next flyby: 2633
Comet Lovejoy was one of the brightest and most active comets
since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997.
Lovejoy passed closest to the sun on January 30, 2015, when it was
releasing water at the rateof 20 tons per second.
The team observed the atmosphere of the comet around this time
when it was brightest and most active.
This long-period comet released large amounts of alcohol (the same
type is used in alcoholic beverages) as well as a type of sugar into
space, according to new observations by an international team.
The finding strongly suggests that comets could have been a source
of the complex organic molecules necessary for the emergence of
life.
In December of 2011, Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) surprised
astronomers by traveling through the Sun’s corona and survived an
estimated 2,200,000° F (1,200,000° C)!
 PARTS OF A COMET

As a comet approaches the sun, it warms up. During this warming, you can
observe several distinct parts:

nucleus
coma
hydrogen envelope
dust tail
ion tail
 PARTS OF A COMET

• The nucleus is the main, solid part of the comet. The nucleus is usually 1 to 10 kilometers in
diameter, but can be as big as 100 kilometers. It can be composed of rock.
• The coma is a halo of evaporated gas (water vapor, ammonia, carbon dioxide) and dust that
surrounds the nucleus. The coma is made as the comet warms up and is often 1,000 times
larger than the nucleus. It can even become as big as Jupiter or Saturn (100,000 kilometers).
The coma and nucleus together form the head of the comet.
• Surrounding the coma is an invisible layer of hydrogen called the hydrogen envelope; the
hydrogen may come from water molecules. It usually has an irregular shape because it is
distorted by the solar wind. The hydrogen envelope gets bigger as the comet approaches the
sun.
 PARTS OF A COMET

• The comet's dust tail always faces away from the sun. The tail is made of small (one micron)
dust particles that have evaporated from the nucleus and are pushed away from the comet by
the pressure of sunlight. The dust tail is the easiest part of the comet to see because
it reflects sunlight and because it is long, several million kilometers (several degrees of the
sky). The dust tail is often curved because the comet is moving in its orbit at the same speed
that the dust is moving away, much as water curves away from the nozzle of a moving hose.
• Comets often have a second tail called an ion tail (also called the plasma or gas tail). The ion
tail is made of electrically charged gas molecules (carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water) that are
pushed away from the nucleus by the solar wind. Sometimes, the gas tail disappears and later
reappears when the comet crosses a boundary where direction of the sun's magnetic field is
reversed.
 PARTS OF A
COMET
Comet Halley as it appeared in
several images from the 1910
apparition. The comet's tail gets
bigger as it gets closer to the sun and
then decreases as it moves away from
the sun.

PHOTO COURTESY NASA/JPL

 PARTS OF A COMET

• The comet's dust tail always faces away from the sun. The tail is made of small (one micron)
dust particles that have evaporated from the nucleus and are pushed away from the comet by
the pressure of sunlight. The dust tail is the easiest part of the comet to see because
it reflects sunlight and because it is long, several million kilometers (several degrees of the
sky). The dust tail is often curved because the comet is moving in its orbit at the same speed
that the dust is moving away, much as water curves away from the nozzle of a moving hose.
• Comets often have a second tail called an ion tail (also called the plasma or gas tail). The ion
tail is made of electrically charged gas molecules (carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water) that are
pushed away from the nucleus by the solar wind. Sometimes, the gas tail disappears and later
reappears when the comet crosses a boundary where direction of the sun's magnetic field is
reversed.
Describe The Changes That Happens To A
Fragment From A Comet Or Asteroid As It
Enters The Earth’s Atmosphere
If a fragment of an asteroid is in
space it is a meteoroid, if the
meteoroid enters the earth's
atmosphere it is called a meteor,
if the meteor lands on earth it is
called a meteorite.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN A METEOROID, A
METEOR, AND A
METEORITE?
It’s a cool night, and you look up at the
stars twinkling and serene in the dark
sky.

Then a light streaks across the sky and

is gone.

“Wow, a shooting star,” you think.

“A meteor. Wait...Or is it a meteorite?
Or a meteoroid?”
 WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
METEOROID, A METEOR, AND A METEORITE?

• It is a meteor. A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the

sky when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material
enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of
the frictional heating from the piece’s collision with
the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.
• Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth’s
atmosphere, it floats through interplanetary space and is
called a meteoroid.
 WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
METEOROID, A METEOR, AND A METEORITE?

• Most meteoroids that enter the atmosphere burn up completely as

meteors.
• In some cases, however, the meteoroid does not completely burn up,
and the object actually makes it to Earth’s surface.
• The chunk that has survived its fiery journey is called a meteorite.
• A small body starts its life as a meteoroid floating through space
between the planets until it makes a bright streak of light in Earth’s
atmosphere as a meteor and then, if it isn’t consumed by frictional
heating, finally lands on the ground as a meteorite.
 REPORT ACTIVITY 2

METEOROID, METEOR, AND

METEORITE: HOW ARE THEY RELATED?

REPORT ACTIVITY 3

DO SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT COMETS,

ASTEROIDS, AND METEORS HAVE
SCIENTIFIC BASIS?