Comets, Asteroids, Meteors and the things beyond Neptune

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Comets, Asteroids, Meteors and the things beyond
Neptune!

• Bause
• North Farmington High School

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Hale Bopp 1997
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Comet Diagram
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Dust tail is opposite the motion of the
comet.Ion tail is ALWAYS on the opposite side of
the Sun. Both tails get bigger/brighter the
closer to the sun
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Orbit

• The orbit of comets are highly eccentric
  (elliptical)
• The orbit is not necessarily on the same place.
• Long Period comets orbit Sun over 100 yrs
• Hale Bopp 2600 yrs.
• Short Period less than 100
• Haleys comet 76 yr. (2062)
• Comet Encke shortest orbital period 3.3 yrs.

Comet Hyatuke 1996
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Composition

• Dirty Snowballs
• Mostly rock and ice surrounded by solid H2,
  water, CH4, CO, O2, which sublimate (solid to
  gas) when approach the sun.
• Missions
• Deep impact. Study the nucleus of Comet Temple 1.
  Detonation was July 4th, 2005.
• Stardust. Followed comet Wilde 2 and collected
  comet dust. Returned to Earth Jan. 15, 2006
• Dust Tails leave a trail of debris. If the Earth
  passes through debris, meteor shower.

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MeteorsShooting stars

• Dust-like comet fragments that enter our
  atmosphere at high speeds. 10 to 50 mps (up
  180,000 mph)!
• They leave a brief flash called train in the
  upper atmosphere.? caused by gases becoming
  charged in our atmosphere
• Usually the size of sand or less.
• Fireball- long lasting shooting star (few
  seconds). Usually basketball size or more.

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Fireball during Leonids in 1998
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Another, cooler looking, Fireball
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Meteorites

• Meteors that make it to the ground.
• 3 main kinds
• Stoney- mostly rock (feldspar) (called
  chondrites)
• Iron- metal mix
• Largest ever found
• Hoba meteorite. Over 50 tons.

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Largest Ever
I wish I was Bause
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• Most meteorites slow to terminal velocity due to
  air friction. 150 to 200 mph (depending on mass)
• If they are traveling at greater speeds, it will
  result in craters on the Earths surface.
• This guy made the mistake of calling NASA.
  They took the meteorite worth millions. SO, he
  sold his car on ebay. Got a few 100 grand.

APOD Nov. 2002
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The Meteor Crater
100 meter projectile created 1 mile diameter
crater. 201 ratio 50,000 yrs old
99 of projectile is vaporized if they are
over 50 tons. If less, they slow to term. vel.
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Meteor Showers

• Increased count per hour.
• On a normal day you should see 1/hour.
• During a shower, up to 100/hour
• When Earth travels through dust trail left behind
  by comet (from dust tail). OR ejecta from meteor
  collision on another planet.
• Name after constellation they appear from.
• Perseids- Aug 10-13
• Leonids- Nov. 16-17
• Geminids- Dec. 10-15
• Many more

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Leonids 1998
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Asteroids

• Minor Planets
• Found in 2 belts.
• The Asteroid Belt (1/2 btwn Mars Jup)
• Kuiper BeltBeyond Neptune includes Pluto, Xena
  Sedna. A few bil miles to 10s of billions of
  miles.
• Mostly orbit on same plane as planets, but
  finding more and more that dont.

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Oort Cloud

• Beyond Kuiper belt. Home to trillions of icy/rock
  objects up 5 trillion miles away (almost a
  lightyear).
• Cannot see these objects yet, but it is believed
  there could be objects as big as the Earth.
• We see 10 or so comets a year originating from
  the Oort cloud.

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