Asteroids, Comets and Meteors

What’s the difference?

its orbit is elongated

• Comets- small body of ice and dust in

a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun.
• Asteroids- Large rocky body (≥ few
hundred meters in diameter) that
orbits the Sun.
• Meteoroids- small rocky body (< few
hundred meters) in orbit around the
Sun.
ALL ARE PLANETESSIMALS! Left over from
the formation of our solar system
 Asteroids
• Between 1801 and 1807, astronomers discovered four
small objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
• These rocky objects, called asteroids, are too small to
be classified as planets. Astronomers often call them as
minor planets.

• Most asteroids revolve around the sun between the

orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

• Found in 2 belts.
– The Asteroid Belt (1/2-way btwn Mars & Jup. i.e 2.1 to
3.3 AU)
– Kuiper Belt: Beyond Neptune… includes Pluto, Xena
& Sedna. A few bil miles to 10’s of billions of miles.
The orbits of asteroids
 Asteroids
• Astronomers have discovered more than
958,000 asteroids and are consistently
finding more.
• Scientists now hypothesize that the
asteroids are leftover pieces of the early
solar system that never came to form a
planet.
Asteroids are classified into a number of types according to
their spectra (and hence their chemical composition) and
albedo:

C-type, includes more than 75% of known asteroids:

extremely dark (albedo 0.03); similar to carbonaceous
chondrite meteorites; approximately the same chemical
composition as the Sun minus hydrogen, helium and other
volatiles

S-type, 17%: relatively bright (albedo .10-.22); metallic

nickel-iron mixed with iron- and magnesium-silicates

M-type, most of the rest: bright (albedo .10-.18); pure

nickel-iron

There are also a dozen or so other rare types

 Near Earth asteroids
• Near-Earth Asteroids or NEAs :
➢ asteroids that have escaped the confines of the
main belt.
➢They roam freely among the planets of the inner
Solar System in which Earth is the largest target.
➢perihelion distance < 1.3 AU
➢divided into groups: Aten, Apollo, Amor
Types of nea
orbit of asteroids
Surface of Asteroid Itokawa
Orbital Elements
 433 Eros – Amor

can cross Mars orbit

can hit Mars
 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA’s)
▪ Asteroid’s potential to make threatening
close approaches to the Earth.
▪ Specifically, all asteroids with a
minimum orbit intersection distance
(MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an
absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less.
real magnitude
Minimum Orbit
Intersection
Distance (MOID)
 NASA Near Earth Object Program
There are thought to be ~1000 NEAs > 1 km and
~15,000 larger than 140 meters.
• 1998 – NASA established a goal to discover
90% of the NEOs larger than 1 km in diameter
• 2005 – Congress extended to include 90% of
the NEOs larger than 140 meters.
The importance of comets
• Comets are the key to
understanding the Solar
Nebula & its evolution.

• Comets could serve as

probes of chemical
processes occurring in the
midplanes of astronomical
disks

• Comets may have

provided key organic
nutrients required to
jump start life on Earth.
 COMETS
• Comets are loose
collections of ice,
dust, or rock
particles whose
orbits are usually
very long, narrow
ellipses. You can
think of a comet as a
“dirty snowball.”
 Comets – cont.
• Most comets are found in one of two distant
regions of the solar system: the Kuiper belt and
the Oort cloud.
• The Kuiper belt is a doughnut-shaped region that
extends from beyond Neptune’s orbit to about
100 times Earth’s distance from the sun.
• The Oort cloud is a spherical region of comets
that surrounds the solar system out to more than
1,000 times the distance between Pluto and the
sun.
 The comet’s head…
• When a comet gets close
enough to the sun, the energy
in the sunlight turns the ice
into gas, releasing gas and
dust.
• Clouds of gas and dust form a
fuzzy outer layer called a
coma.
• A comet’s coma has a solid
inner core called a nucleus.
The nucleus and coma (the
comet’s head) is the brightest
part of a comet.
Major Comet Structures

HI CLOUD

ION TAIL

NUCLEUS DUST TAIL (not part of coma)

COMA
 The comet’s tail…
• As a comet approaches the sun and heats up, some of the
gas and dust stream outward, forming a tail. The name
“comet” means “long haired star” in Greek. Most comets
have two tails, a gas tail and a dust tail. Both tails usually
point away from the sun due to the force of solar wind
from the sun. A comet’s tail can be more than 100 million
kilometers long.

due to scattering process

(green/ blue colour)

Comet Diagram

tells where the sun is

dust from comets being heated by heat from solar wind - the light
will be scattered
-direction of tail not directly pointed away from sun, but deviated

always continue produce solar wind - release high energy

particles that heat materials of comet
 • Dust tail is opposite
the motion of the
comet. Trail of debris
left behind.

both tails seperated when close to sun

• Ion tail is ALWAYS on the opposite side of the Sun. Solar wind
(charged particles, electron and protons, shot outward from the
Sun). The charged particles excite the gases emitted from comet
and give off light (usually blue).
• Both tails get bigger/brighter the closer to the sun.
– Dust tail because the sun warms the comet, sublimating the gases and
allowing more debris to fall off.
pieces
– Ion tail because more charged particles from the sun are colliding with
increasing gases given off from the comet.
 COMET NUCLEUS

when it received sunlihgts

ejected from the surface at high speed

 Artist conception of what comet looks
like as it approaches the Sun
• Surface is covered with jets of gas as they sublimate
(turn from solid to gas) from the warmth of the Sun.
• Notice the “floating” rocks. Comets have very little
mass, compared to a planet, and therefore have very
little gravity.
 Orbit comet orbit - almost perpendicular to earth's

•The orbit of comets are highly

eccentric (elliptical)
•UNLIKE asteroids and planets,
the orbit is not necessarily on the
same plane as the path planets
take around the Sun.
•Long Period comets orbit Sun
over 100 yrs
earth orbit - Hale Bopp 2600 yrs.
•Short Period less than 100
- Haley's comet 76 yr. (2062)
- Comet Encke shortest
orbital period 3.3 yrs.

Comet Hyakutake 1996

 Composition of comet
• Dirty Snowballs
– Mostly rock and ice surrounded by solid H2, water,
CH4, CO, O2, which sublimate (solid to gas) when
approach the sun.
– Recently found CaCO3!!!
• 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 we get a meteor shower.
Comet Hale-Bopp 1997
 Meteoroids…
• A meteoroid is a chunk of
rock or dust in space.
Meteoroids come from
comets or asteroids. Some
form when asteroids collide in
space; others form when a
comet breaks up and creates
a cloud of dust that continues
to move across the solar
system.
difference: comets - km, meteoroids - debris
 Meteroids
Meteors
• A meteoroid is a chunk of rock or dust in space.
Meteoroids come from comets or asteroids.
• Some meteoroids form when asteroids collide in
space.
• When a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere,
friction with the air creates heat and produces a
streak of light in the sky called a meteor.
• Meteoroids that pass through the atmosphere
and hit Earth’s surface is called a meteorite.
• The craters on the moon were formed by
meteoroids.
the remnant (residue) of meteoroid is meteorite
 Meteors…
• When a meteoroid
enters Earth’s
atmosphere, friction
with the air creates
heat and produces a
streak of light in the
sky- a meteor.
 Meteorites…
• If the meteoroid is large enough, it may not
burn up completely. Meteoroids that pass
through the atmosphere and hit Earth’s
surface are called meteorites.
 Meteors
“Shooting 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 a 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.
Fireball during Leonids
(Mid-November)
Another, cooler looking, Fireball
 Meteorites
• Meteors that make it to the ground.
• kinds
– Stoney- mostly rock (feldspar) (called
chondrites)
– Iron- metal mix
• Largest ever found
– Hoba meteorite. Over 50 tons.
 Five Meteorite Types

primarily iron and

nickel;
Iron similar to type M
asteroids

mixtures of iron
and stony material
Stony Iron like type S
asteroids
by far the largest
number of
meteorites fall into
this class;
Chondrite similar in
composition to the
mantles and crusts
of the terrestrial
planets
 Meteorite Types

very similar in
composition to the Sun
Carbonaceous
less volatiles;
Chondrite similar to type C
asteroids

similar to terrestrial
basalts;
the meteorites believed
Achondrite to have originated on
the Moon and Mars are
achondrites
Hoba,Largest Ever
 •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 Earth’s
surface.
•*** This guy made the mistake of calling
NASA. They took the meteorite worth quite
a bit of money. SO, he sold his car on ebay
and got way more than it was worth.
APOD Nov. 2002
The Meteor Crater

99% + of projectile is vaporized 2000 meter crater (roughly 1 mile)

if they are over 50 tons.
20:1 ratio
If less, they slow to term. vel.
50,000 yrs old
 Chicxulub Crater
Yucatan Pennisula
• 120 Mile wide
crater formed
from a 6 mile
wide asteroid.

• Marks the end of

the Mesozoic-
Killed 70% of
ALL species
(including dinos)

• Mostly buried
today.
 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
Leonids 1998