Zodiacal Light
Zodiacal light is the faint, diffuse glow seen along the ecliptic just before sunrise or after sunset. This glow is caused by this effect.
What is sunlight scattering off due to interplanetary dust?
When a meteoroid burns up in Earth's atmosphere, creating a bright streak in the sky, it's called this.
What is a meteor?
Most asteroids in our solar system are found in this region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
What is the asteroid belt?
The Kuiper Belt begins just beyond this planet's orbit and extends outward to about 50 AU.
What is Neptune?
This part of a comet is a glowing cloud of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus, formed as the comet approaches the Sun.
What is the coma?
The dust responsible for zodiacal light primarily originates from these two celestial sources.
What are comets and asteroids?
This term refers to a space rock that survives its fiery passage through Earth’s atmosphere and lands on the surface.
What is a meteorite?
These "Earth-crossing" asteroids have orbits that bring them close to our planet and are tracked due to their potential impact risk.
What are Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)?
Discovered in 2005, this TNO is slightly smaller than Pluto but caused major debate over planetary definitions.
What is Eris?
This region, far beyond Pluto, is thought to be the source of long-period comets.
What is the Oort Cloud?
This term describes the plane along which zodiacal light is most visible, aligning with Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
What is the ecliptic?
This stony meteorite type contains small, round particles and is thought to be among the most primitive solar system materials.
What is a chondrite?
The gravitational influence of this massive planet is responsible for preventing the asteroid belt from forming into a planet.
What is Jupiter?
This NASA mission gave us the first close-up images of Pluto and its moons when it flew by in 2015.
What is New Horizons?
Comet tails always point away from the Sun due to this phenomenon.
What is the solar wind (or solar radiation pressure)?
Zodiacal light is most easily observed from locations with these two environmental conditions.
What are dark skies and low light pollution?
This rare class of meteorites originates from the crust of differentiated planetary bodies, including Mars and the Moon.
What are achondrites?
This NASA mission was the first to return a sample from a carbon-rich asteroid, bringing back material from Bennu in 2023.
What is OSIRIS-REx?
These icy bodies, like Sedna and 2012 VP113, have extremely distant orbits and are considered part of this subclass of TNOs.
What are detached objects (or sednoids)?
This spacecraft became the first to land on a comet in 2014, deploying the Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
What is Rosetta?
This famous "rock start" PhD astrophysics thesis was about the distribution of velocities in the Zodiacal light cloud.
Who is Brian May? (Queen guitarist)
This desert and this continent are two of the most productive locations on Earth for finding well-preserved meteorites.
What are the Sahara and Antarctica?
The asteroid taxonomy (or spectral classification) includes these 3 classes
What are C-type (carbonaceous), S-type (silicaceous), and M-type (metallic)?
Objects in the Kuiper Belt that share Pluto’s 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune are known as this type of TNO.
What are plutinos?
This famous comet, visible from Earth roughly every 76 years, was last seen in 1986 and is expected back in 2061.
What is Halley’s Comet?