Asteroids
A small rocky body orbiting the sun
What is an asteroid?
This object survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground
What is a meteorite?
A large object made of dust, rock, and ice that orbits the Sun
What is a comet?
A comet first sighted in 1758 and orbits the sun every 72-80 years
Mission that sampled the regolith of asteroid Bennu
What is the OSIRIS-REx mission?
The location where most asteroids are located between Mars and Jupiter
What is the asteroid belt?
A "shooting-star"
What is a meteor?
The comet's "atmosphere" that forms as it nears the sun
What is a coma?
A comet that was discovered in 2023 and is visible tonight
What is comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS?
Mission to explore a unique metal-rich asteroid
What is the Psyche mission?
A stony type of asteroid
What is an S-type asteroid?
One of two meteor showers associated with Halley's comet that peaks in October
What is the Orionids meteor shower?
A donut shaped region beyond Neptune
What is the Kuiper Belt?
A stony meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2011
What is meteorite NWA 7034 or "Black Beauty"
NASA mission dedicated to detecting asteroids that could potentially hit earth
What is the NEO Surveyor?
These asteroids share an orbit with a larger planet
What are trojans?
A type of meteorite made of nearly equal parts metal and silicate materials
What is a stony-iron meteorite?
A hypothesized region in the outermost solar system
What is the Oort cloud?
This object was originally classified as an asteroid in 1801
What is Ceres?
The first mission to land on a comet
What is the Rosetta mission?
A dip in the distribution of the semi-major axis of the orbits of main-belt asteroids.
What are the Kirkwood Gaps?
The glassy coating on a meteorite
What is a fusion crust?
High-speed solar particles that can blow coma dust and gas away from the comet
What is the solar wind?
Second earth trojan asteroid
What is asteroid 2020 XL5?
The first mission to explore the Kuiper Belt
What is the New Horizons mission