Minor Bodies of the Solar System Chapter 7

Kepler’s Laws 1. Planets orbit the sun in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of the ellipse

Keper’s Second Law As a planet moves in its orbit, a line connecting the planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times

Kepler’s Third Law P 2 = a 3 (provided the period is in Earth years and the semi-major axis in astronomical units)

The Main Asteroid Belt

Ceres: Largest Main Belt Asteroids

Gaspra and Ida (and Dactyl)

Mathilde and Eros

NEAR close-ups of Eros

Resonances in the Asteroid Belt

Main Asteroid Types C type: carbonaceous, low albedo S type: stony or stony-metallic, redder E type: high albedo, magnesium silicate D type: very dark and red M type: mostly iron and nickel E, S, and M types may be fragments from a larger body that underwent differentiation

Asteroid Light Curves Antigone

Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud

Pluto: Planet or Kuiper Belt Object

Pluto

Sedna

Comets: Dirty Snowballs

SOHO Comets

Comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp

Impact with Comet Tempel 1 at 23,000 mph on July 4, 2005

Shoemaker Levy 9

Hits Jupiter July 1994

Meteors and Meteorites

Meteor Showers