Science

2. A solar system is a collection of the Sun,
planets and their moons, comets,
asteroids, meteoroids, and dwarf planets
revolving around the Sun. The planets
revolving around the Sun in a sequence are
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

3. Minor Members
of the
Solar System

5. Learning Outcomes:
➢ Composition of asteroids, comets and meteoroids
➢ Identify the characteristics of meteors and comets
➢ Difference and similarities of a meteoroid, a meteor
and a meteorite

6. Asteroids

7. ● The word Asteroid came from Greek word astor (star) and oid
(shape)
● rocky or metallic celestial body that orbits the Sun. The orbit of an
asteroid is more rounded and than the comet
● smaller than a planet but larger than a meteoroid.
● generally irregular in shape and often have surfaces covered with
craters, size ranges from a few meters to over 500 km (300 mi)
wide.

8. Asteroids are found in the
❖ MAIN ASTEROID
BELT
❖ Trojan Belt
❖ Near Earth
Asteroids

9. Basic
Structure of
an Asteroid

10. ❖ Ceres is the largest asteroid
940 km in diameter
❖ It was discovered by
Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1,
1981

11. Pallas is the Second Largest Asteroid (540 km in
diameter)
Vesta is the Third largest asteroid. (510 km in
diameter)

12. Types of Asteroids
(according to color and composition)
C-Type Asteroids S-Type Asteroids M-Type Asteroids
very dark and
carbonaceous. There are
75 percent of known
asteroids that are of the
C-type.
rusty red in color and
are composed of iron
and magnesium
silicate.
rich with metallic
substances.

14. Types of Asteroids
(according to location)
Athens Apollos Trojans
Lies near the orbit of Mars
Example:
Ceres, Pallas,
Vesta, Juno
Lies near Jupiter
Example:
Eros
Geographos
Icaros
Lies within the asteroid
belt
Example:
Hector, Diomedes
Agamemnon, Petrocius

15. Many scientists believe that a large asteroid or comet struck
Earth about 65 million years ago, changing the Earth’s climate
enough to kill off the dinosaurs..

16. It's spectacular result of a
Collision 50,000 years
ago, when an asteroid
plunged through the
Earth's atmosphere and
crashed into the land, just
east of what is now
Flagstaff. The crater was
formed in an instant.
Originally, Meteor Crater
was almost 700 feet deep
Asteroid impact
near Flagstaff, Arizona
(1.13 km wide)

17. Comets

18. • Comets are composed of
dust and rock mixed with
frozen water, methane,
and ammonia
• Comets are considered to
be like a large, dirty
cosmic snowball

19. Parts of the Comet

20. • When a comet nears the
sun, some of it melts and
forms a long tail (gases
in the comet are
vaporized by the sun)
• When a comet moves
farther away from the
sun, the tail disappears

21. Comets usually
come from the Oort
Cloud which is
beyond our Solar
System, and a few
from Kuiper Belt
which is just
beyond Neptune’s
orbit.

22. • Comets travel around the sun in elliptical orbits
• Long-period comets come from the Oort cloud,
while short-period comets come from Kuiper
Belt.
After a comet has passed close to the Sun many times, it
breaks apart. The small pieces from the comet spread out.
These pieces of dust and rock, along with those coming
from other sources, are called Meteoroids.

23. Famous
Comets

24. • The most famous comet of the
20th century.
• Only known short-period comet
• Edmond Halley, 1758
• Last seen 1986, projected to
return 2061
• It takes 75-79 years for Comet
Halley to orbit the Sun
Halley’s Comet

25. Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9
● Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David
Levy, March 24, 1993
● Ninth Short periodic comet
● July 1994 collided with Jupiter, first observed
collision in our solar system through Hubble
Space Telescope, that left a visible hole

26. Hale-Bopp Comet
● Discovered in July 23, 1995,
independently, by both Alan Hale and
Thomas Bopp
● Long period comet, It takes about
2,534 years for Hale-Bopp to orbit the
sun once. Hale-Bopp last reached
perihelion (closest approach to the
sun) on Apr. 1, 1997
● It will return to the inner solar system
around year 4385

27. Comet Hyakutake
● Discovered through a
binocular on January 30,
1996 by Yuji Hyakutake
● March 25, 1996 comet seen
by naked eye until may 1996
● Long period comet, orbital
period is 113, 782 years