Asteroids

1
Asteroids

• By Larry Wright

2
Overview

• What Are Asteroids
• Locations Of Asteroids In Space
• Impact Craters On Earth
• The Global Killer

3
What Are Asteroids

• Asteroid One of many small celestial bodies
  revolving around the sun, most of the orbits
  being between Mars and Jupiter.
• AKA Minor Planet or Planetoid

4
Two Types of Asteroids

• Identified using infrared images
• 1.Light Iron and Nickel, resemble lunar rocks
• 2.Darkhigh quantities of hydrated minerals and
  carbon.

5
Asteroid Belt
6
Near Earth Asteroids
7
Orbit Diagrams
EROS orbital pathGaspra orbital pathIDA
orbital pathMathilde orbital path2005 WC1Nov
18th 20051996 PC1 (very Close) Aug 2nd 2011
8
CRATER CATEGORIES
Simple Crater Depth-to-diameter ratios of about
15 to 17 and a smooth bowl shape.
Complex Crater dependent on the surface gravity
of the planet The greater the gravity, the
smaller the diameter that will produce a complex
structure.
9
Barringer Meteor Crater, Arizona
Diameter .737 miles Age 49,000 years
10
Wolfe Creek Crater, Australia
Diameter .544 miles Age 300,000 years
11
Manicouagan Crater, Quebec, Canada

Diameter 62 miles Age 212 - 1 million
years
12
The Global Killer

• An asteroid capable of global disaster would have
  to be more than a quarter-mile wide.
• Cause a Nuclear Winter
• More than 160 asteroids have been classified as
  "potentially hazardous"
• NASA puts the odds at 1 in 10,000 of discovering
  an asteroid that is within 10 years of impact.
• (need 40 years to develop technology)

13
Finding NEOs

• United States and International Co-op
• NASAs Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Program
  (NEAT)
• University of Arizona, Spacewatch program
• Spaceguard Foundation, Rome, Italy
• Promotes and coordinates discovery programs at an
  international level
• Discovers NEOs 1KM at rate of 5 per month

Combined Goal to find 90 of all NEOs 1KM by
2010
14
Chicxulub Crater

• Created approx. 65 million years ago
• Said to have caused the extinction of Dinosaurs
• Asteroid 10 km (6 mi) in diameter
• releasing an estimated 5.01023 joules of energy
• approx 100,000 gigatons of TNT on impact
• Most powerful explosive device ever detonated,
  the Tsar Bomba or Emperor Bomb, had a yield of
  only one-twentieth of a gigaton.

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
Diameter 112 miles
Chicxulub Crater, Mexico (Complex)
19
Conclusion

• What Are Asteroids
• Locations Of Asteroids In Space
• Impact Craters On Earth
• The Global Killer

20
References

• http//www.solarviews.com/eng/tercrate.htm
• http//www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/
  asteroids-ez.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_Crater
• http//meteorite.org/chicx_space.htm
• http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstrmathil
  de
• http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstrida
• http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?des200520
  WC1
• http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstr19962
  0PC1
• http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstrEROSg
  roupastsearchSearch
• McGraw-Hill (2003), Dictionary of Astronomy, 2nd
  Edition
• Hapurn (1998), Countdown to Apocalypse, Chapter 7
• Curtis Peebles (2000), Asteroids