Vocab
rocky remnants of the early solar system found mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
asteroid belt
the bright trail of light seen when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere (commonly known as a shooting star).
meteor
mpactor is the name of the asteroid that may have triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Chicxulub
the power of such an impact is determined by
size, speed, and composition
When comets get close to the Sun the Sun’s heat vaporizes the ice, forming a
coma
a flow of hot, charged particles leaving the Sun.
Solar Wind
a part of a meteoroid that survives through Earth’s atmosphere.
meteorite
As an impacting mass moves closer, it sets up shock waves in our atmosphere.
When it finally hits the ground, it blasts out huge amounts of debris, leaving behind a round depression called a
crater
The ___________ scale is used yo rate the magnitude or the amount of energy released in a earth quaking event
Richter scale
The rate at which comets and asteroids strike Earth in our time is fairly
low
a disk- shaped region beyond Neptune that contains remnants of the early solar system, mostly as comets but also as asteroid-type bodies.
Kuiper belt
: material that was never part of a larger body such as a moon, a planet, or an asteroid, but instead
is probably original solar-system material.
chondrite
______ that point away from the origin of the impact.
rays
How planets and moons are formed when smaller particles of material come together to form larger ones.
accretion
A threat still still exist because
Because we have not accurately accounted for all the bodies in near-Earth space that could pose a danger to us.
This is not due to lack of observation, but because many bodies are simply too small to observe until they get closer to us. Comets following high-inclination, eccentric orbits simply aren’t seen until the Sun’s heat begins to melt their ices.
a sphere- shaped region beyond Neptune that contains remnants of the early solar system, mostly as comets.
Oort Cloud
are actually minor planets which can neither be classified either as a planet or as a comet.
asteroids
Crater in Arizona that was used to practice the trip to the moon
meteor crater
When heavier elements gravitated towards the cores of different planets and worlds lighter ones formed their outer layers. This is called
differentiation
Statistically, one of these has a chance of colliding with Earth
once or twice every million years.
a small
rock in space.
Metroid
are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun.
When frozen, they are the size of a small town.
orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets.
comets
The crater in the arctic used to practice the mission to Mars
Haughton Crater
The size of an impact crater is always bigger than the
impactor
The last such impact was large impact was where and when
in 1908 in Tunguska, in Siberia.