Small Solar System OBJECTS

1.Scientist classify these objects based on their sizes, shapes, compositions, and orbits. The major categories include: -Dwarf planets -Comets -Asteroids -Meteoroids

2.There are three areas of our solar system: -Asteroids Belts: a region of our Solar System between Mars and Jupiter -Kuiper Belt: extends to one hundred times Earth’s distance from the sun -Oort Cloud: stretches out more than one thousand times the distance between the sun and neptune

3.A Dwarf Planet is a planetary-mass object: -Pluto is an example is a Dwarf Planet -Dwarf Planets orbit the sun, have enough gravity to pull themselves into spheres, and they have other objects in the area of their orbit -all of Dwarf Planets orbit beyond Neptune, except Eris -A Dwarf Planet that orbits beyond Neptune is called a plutoid

4.Comets are astronomical objects with tails -Comets are made up of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles -Comets orbits can be very long, narrow ellipses. -Most Comets originate in the Oort cloud

5.Asteroids are leftover pieces of solar system that never came together -Asteroids are usually to small and numerous to be counted -Asteroids are less than a kilometer in a diameter

6. Meteoroids are mass of rock in space -Meteoroids are less than 10 meters across -Friction in the air creates heat and produces a streak of light behind the Meteoroid

Comet Dwarf Planets Asteroid http://www.brainpop.com/science/space/comets/