Other Objects in Space

Asteroid Belt - between Mars and Jupiter

2. Oort Cloud-Located beyond Pluto surrounding the solar system

3. Comets Made of dust, rock particles, ice, methane, and ammonia.

4. Life of a Comet A comet will vaporize as it nears the sun. A tail will form behind the comet-always pointed away from the sun-blasted that direction by solar winds. As it moves away from the sun, it re-freezes and the tail disappears. Overtime, it will completely melt and disappear.

Life of a comet

5. Meteoroids As comets vaporize and break up, they leave behind small particles of dust and rocks. These are meteoroids.

Meteoroid Trail/Orbit

6. Meteors A meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere (speeds of km/s) and burns up is called a meteor. Each time Earth passes through an old comet orbit, a meteor shower occurs.

7. Meteorite If a meteor is too large to burn up completely, it will strike the Earth- now it’s called a meteorite.

Meteorites Meteor Crater formed about 50,000 years ago when a 100-foot- wide (30-meter- wide) meteor weighing 100,000 tons slammed into the Arizona desert at an estimated 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second. The resulting explosion exceeded the combined force of today's nuclear arsenals and created a 0.7- mile-wide (1.1- kilometer-wide), 650-foot-deep (200-meter-deep) crater.

The two lakes shown here, are the result of some of the largest impact craters still preserved on the surface of the Earth. NASA officials said asteroids currently threatening Earth could devastate an entire region, but not the entire globe. Lake Bosomtwe in Ghana, Africa Lake Manicouagan in Quebec, Canada,

Moon Craters

8. Asteroid Belt Have not formed a planet due to the gravitational pull of Jupiter.

Asteroids ionalgeographic. com/science/spa ce/solar- system/asteroids -comets- article.html The round shape of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, suggests that its interior is layered like Earth's. First classified as an asteroid, Ceres was recently also labeled a dwarf planet. It has a diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers) and it contains about a third of the asteroid belt's total mass.

9. Why do I care? Comets, asteroids and meteorites formed early in the history of the solar system. Studying these objects helps scientists learn how the Earth formed and how other Earth-like planets may also form in the Universe. Plus, knowing where these things are might help us avoid being killed by it.