2 tails of a comet

1
2 tails of a comet
2
Comet Period

• Comets may be classified based upon how long they
  take to orbit the sun
• may use Keplers law to find the semimajor axis
  of the orbit from period
• 2 broad classifications
• period 200 years
• hard to classify
• Period
• Halleys comet 76 year period

3
Shoemaker Levy 9

• Crashed into Jupiter on July 1994
• 20 large fragments impacted the planet at 60
  kilometers (37 miles) per second, causing plumes
  thousands of kilometers high.
• They left hot bubbles of gas in the atmosphere
  and great dark scars which lasted for months
  after the collision. The largest fragments were
  estimated at 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter
• Used to obtain information on Jupiters atmosphere

4
Shoemaker Levy 9

• Comet was originally broken up by Jupiters
  gravity and captured

5
Shoemaker Levy 9
6
Asteroids

• Large rocks left over from formation of solar
  system
• Meteroroids -chunks in space
• Meter- burns up in atmosphere
• Meterorite (shooting star) a meter which survives
  the decent and lands on earth

7
Composition and size

• vary from 1 mm to asteroids which are several Km
  for asteroids
• 26 known to have radius greater then 200 km
• shapes are often oblong rather than spherical

8
Composition and size

• Asteroids are also categorized by their position
  in the solar system
• Near Earth
• Belt
• Trojain located near Jupiter's Lagrange points
  (60 degrees ahead and behind Jupiter in its
  orbit).

9
Earth Impact

• Dinosaurs were killed by either a comet or an
  astroid hitting the earth 65 million years ago
• Impact crater found in Mexican Yucatan Pennisula
• The energy of the impact was comparable to 100
  million megatons of TNT, 6 million times more
  energetic than the 1980 Mount St. Helens volcanic
  eruption
• The explosion that produced the Chicxulub crater
  excavated a huge amount of material, which was
  then ejected upwards. Most of the debris was
  deposited as a blanket of material that covered
  North America and possible South America.

10
Earth Impact

• Recently NASA has been attempting to find
  possiable near earth astroids
• Try to push out of way