Asteroids, Comets, and Moons

By: Ryan and Jaspreet

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Asteroids
Are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. Small, airless rock, revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets.

Types of Asteroids
# C-type more than 75% of asteroids: extremely dark approximately the same chemical composition as the Sun # S-type, 17%: relatively metallic nickel-iron mixed with iron- and magnesium-silicates; # M-type, most of the rest: bright (albedo .10.18); pure nickel-iron.

Main belt
v Population is concentrated in the Main Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter Aka Asteroid Belt

Location of Asteroids in Space

Lie in a vast ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter talk about main belt Main belt holds more than 200 asteroids larger than 100 kilometers in diameter. Scientists estimate the asteroid belt contains more than 750,000 asteroids larger than three-fifths of a kilometer in diameter and millions of smaller ones

Location Of Asteroids
Main Belt; located between Mars and Jupiter roughly 2 - 4 AU from the Sun; further divided into subgroups: Hungarias, Floras, Phocaea, Koronis, Eos, Themis, Cybeles and Hildas (which are named after the main asteroid in the group). Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs): ones that closely approach the Earth * 1 Astronomical Unit = 149 598 000 kilometers *

Moons
Did you know that neither Mercury or Venus have moons? Earth, as you may know, only has 1 moon There are many theories as to how Earth s moon came to be. The most popular hypothesis is that an object the approximate size of Mars hit Earth and the collision caused what the Earth is today, and also our moon.

Continued
Trojans: located near Jupiter's Lagrange points (60 degrees ahead and behind Jupiter in its orbit). hundred such asteroids are now known; it is estimated that there may be a thousand or more altogether Many asteroids travel outside of the asteroid belt, and remain on elliptical orbits pulled around by gravity from the sun.

Earth s Moon
Earth, as you may know, only has 1 moon There are many theories as to how Earth s moon came to be. The most popular hypothesis is that an object the approximate size of Mars hit Earth and the collision caused what the Earth is today, and also our moon. Humans first landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969.

Mars Moons
Mars has 2 moons; Demos and Phobos. They are extremely small, only 12.6km and 22.2km, which is smaller than most towns. They re small sizes cause their gravity to be very weak. Since the gravity is very weak, the moons do not even form into spheres, like our moon. They just look like typical asteroids.

Jupiter s Moons
Jupiter has more than 50 moons

Most of these moons are small, and were probably once asteroids that got sucked in by its gravitational pull, so are not classified as moons Jupiter's large size means that it has very strong gravity, and it s powerful gravity sometimes grabs onto objects that wander too close

Saturn s Moons
Of all the planets, Saturn reigns supreme,

well at least in the moon department. That is because Saturn has more moons than any other planet, 62 currently, and counting. Out of these 62 moons, 53 are actually classified as moons and 9 are provisional (unofficial) moons.

Uranus Moons
The planet Uranus has many fascinating worlds that orbit it. There are likely still other moons of Uranus that have yet to be discovered. Uranus has 27 moons 5 of which are large, while the rest are most likely smaller asteroids caught in Uranus gravity

Neptune s Moons
Since Neptune is so far away from Earth, it is extremely difficult to see any of Neptune s moons. Most of it s moons were not discovered until 1989, when NASA sent a satellite to discover new worlds. Today we know Neptune has 13 moons, but there are most likely many more orbiting this planet.

Comets
Is an icy, small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet.

Comet tails
Two types of comet tails: dust and gas ion.

1) Dust Ion
dust tail, which is usually yellow, contains small, solid particles that are about the same size as those found in cigarette smoke. This tail forms because sunlight acts on these small particles, gently pushing them away from the comet's nucleus.

2) Gas Ion
A gas ion tail, which is usually blue, forms when ultraviolet sunlight rips one or more electrons from gas atoms in the coma making them into ions (a process called ionization). Then solar wind carries these ions straight outward away from the Sun. Resulting tail is straighter and narrower. Both types of tails may extend millions of kilometers into space.

Location In Space
The orbit of a Comet usually takes the comets to a cold and dark outermost reaches which the solar system is close to the Sun. When comets venture into the more intense sunlight of the inner solar system, the ices on the comet nucleus begin to melt and fall away. The wake of particles forms the comet's tail, which can be hundreds of miles long and can often be seen from Earth.

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