Comets and asteroids. They are some of the first celestial bodies that humans observed and truly thought about. From ancient cultures interpreting these near-Earth objects as signs of disaster, to 18th century Europeans studying their paths, to even the extinction of the dinosaurs, comets and asteroids have always been prevalent in the majority of Earth’s history. These objects have intrigued the human race for generations, and continue to do so today. These similar subjects of fascination have many unique and interesting characteristics and a rich history with Earth.
A comet is composed primarily of ice and rock. Comets are thought to be remnants from the formation of the solar system, which occurred over four-and-a-half billion years ago. Comets have three main parts: the nucleus, the coma, and the tail. The main part of the comet, where the majority of its mass is located, is the nucleus. Like stated earlier, the comet is composed of ice, rock, and dust particles, all of which are located in the nucleus. This is actually the only “natural” part of the comet; it is the only part of the comet that is not formed from the effects of external forces. The coma of the comet is located around the nucleus. It is formed from melted ice and rock and dust sediment. The tail of the comet is also composed of these materials, but, unlike the nucleus and the coma, and as the name suggests, it is located behind the two other structures. These structures make up the entirety of the comet as we view them. The coma and the tail are formed from the effect of gravity and solar radiation. Solar radiation causes the ice to melt, so as to form the two structures, and gravity conforms them into the shapes that we observe in the night sky. These two fac...
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... can be compared and contrasted in a multitude of diverse ways. Asteroids are composed of rocks and minerals while comets are made up of rocks and minerals but mostly ice. Although they are roughly made up of similar material, they have very different orbital paths around our solar system. Asteroids have a sophisticated orbital path around the sun. Asteroids always maintain a specific distance from the Sun while Comets do not. Comets orbit around the Sun in different distances and paths. A comet’s orbital path is also affected by larger objects in space such as Jupiter. Asteroids primarily only follow the gravitational pull of Sun. Some similarities of comets and asteroids are that they are both from the big bang and are created from stardust. Both comets and asteroids were created near the beginning of our solar system 4.5 million years ago.
In the mid-nineteenth century, new developments in astronomy were expanding the field at an fast and exciting rate. The Mitchells were aware that the King of Denmark awarded a gold metal to anyone who discovered a "telescopic" comet. No one in America had won that award yet.
On the evening of October 1, 1847, just half past ten, Maria Mitchell discovered a comet now known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet”, which not only earned her a gold medal by King of Denmark, Frederick VI, but also the becoming the first women ever to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science in 1848 (“Maria Mitchell Biography”). Evidently
Chondrites were made by the accretion of particles of dust present in the primitive Solar System which gave rise to asteroids over 4.55 billion years ago (SOURCE). These asteroid parent bodies of chondrites were small to medium sized asteroids that were never large enough to go through melting and planetary differentiation like Earth. Further evidence of age is shown through the abundance of non-volatile elements in chondrites which is similar to that found in the atmosphere of the Sun and other stars in our galaxy.[10] Even though chondritic asteroids never became hot enough to melt based upon internal temperatures, many of these asteroids did reach high enough temperatures to experience significant thermal metamorphism in the interior. T...
Asteroids are tiny, airless rocky worlds orbiting around the sun and most of them are too small to be called planets, yet, some asteroids are too big too not to be acknowledged and are known as planetoids or minor planets. The mass asteroids are puny but despite their size, asteroids can be deadly. The earth has been hit by many asteroids in the past and can potentially be hit by some again. That's one reason why scientists study asteroids and find ways to avoid them from hitting us or at least predict if they are coming.
The Kuiper Belt is an icy-bodied disc shapes area of the Solar System. Kuiper Belt has a circular shape, to be exact, it is a curved plane. It is over 4.5 to 7.4 billion kilometers from Sun. This is roughly 30 to 50 times the distance of Earth from Sun. The Kuiper Belt has been said to resemble the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. The difference between the Kuiper Belt and the Asteroid Belt is that the bodies are icier due to their distance from the Sun. The Kuiper Belt objects includes Pluto and other comets that orbit beyond Neptune. Most Kuiper Belt objects are made up of frozen volatiles such as methane, water and ammonia. In 1950 astronomer Gerald Kuiper predicted the existence of the Kuiper Belt and the find was named
Halley’s Comet or Comet Halley is a comet who orbits earth every 74.5 years! This comet is also the most known comet ever to be documented! Halley is very interesting comet.
This is the Scholarly Journal Archive. 2. Letters Planet Pluto Gerard P. Kuiper Science, New Series, Vol. 124, No. 2 -. 3216. The. Aug. 17, 1956, p. 322.
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic understanding of its characteristics. Today Pluto remains the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft, yet an increasing amount of information is unfolding about this peculiar planet. The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal.
Historians and archeologists have found physical evidence that ancient civilizations had an active interest it the apparent motion of the celestial objects. Stonehenge in England, The Bighorn Medicine Wheel in the Unit...
Meteors are very common throughout outer space. They are being whipped around our solar system in every orbit possible. Normally they are peacefully and serenely floating through space, but one just has to look at the cratered face of our moon or Jupiter's moon Callisto to see that more than a few meteor's journeys through space have been interrupted. The earth has been hit before and will be hit in the future, statistics show this. We must detect the meteors a long time before they cross paths with Earth to prevent an impact. The likelihood of a significant meteor impact in the near future is extremely small, but it is still a possibility.
Asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter; this is called the Asteroid belt or Main belt. The asteroid belt has been said to probably contain millions of asteroids that are all different. There are more than 20,000 numbered asteroids. Some times asteroids get knocked off the asteroid belt. As asteroids revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits, Jupiter’s gravity and getting to close to Mars or another asteroid can change an asteroids path, this could send an asteroid out of the asteroid belt and into space across the orbits of other planets. An example of asteroid orbits changing is Mar’s moons Phobos and Deimos. These were asteroids that went to close to Mars and got caught in its orbit.
Comets have a predictable orbit. There are one thousand comets that have been charted. Some comets go by the sun once and others, which are called periodic comets, pass the sun repeatedly following a predicable pattern. I have chosen a periodic comet called Tempel-Tuttle. Ernst Wilhelm Liebrecht Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle discovered this comet. This comet has been witnessed as early as 1366. The best apparition was that of 1366 when it passed 0.
Meteorites, having a decent impact on this, have been separated into three categories; stony, stony iron, and iron. They have been split into these because of their composition and stony is the most commonly found on Earth. This suggests that other objects in the universe are made of some of the same material because meteorites are usually small pieces or leftovers of a larger object in the solar system. Planetary surfaces are the surfaces that show the impact cratering but less impact craters are found than the number of meteorites. The age and histories of different planetary surfaces can be determined by impact craters. “Scientists record the size and number of impact craters - and how eroded they are - to determine the ages and histories of different planetary surfaces” (Impact Cratering). Even though so many meteorites hit Earth, a lot of impact craters are difficult to recognize because Earth’s weathering and
• Geologists have discovered meteorites on the earth that have existed for many thousands of millions of years, way before the earth came into existence.
Space has always been a pivotal and utmost important subject for many years. In the past, scientists have made monumental advances in this field such as sending people into orbit and landing a man on the moon. Of course, this has only barely been explored and we still have a lot more to see of the ever-vast outer space. One of the most significant topics of all of science has only been touched and there’s still more to come.