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Comets Comet structures are diverse and very dynamic, but they all develop a surrounding cloud of diffuse material, called a coma, that usually grows in size and brightness as the comet approaches the Sun. Usually a small, bright nucleus (less than 10 km in diameter) is visible in the middle of the coma. The coma and the nucleus together constitute the head of the comet. As comets approach the Sun they develop enormous tails of luminous material that extend for millions of kilometers from the head, away from the Sun. When far from the Sun, the nucleus is very cold and its material is frozen solid within the nucleus. In this state comets are sometimes referred to as a "dirty iceberg" or "dirty snowball," since over half of their material is ice. When a comet approaches within a few AU of the Sun, the surface of the nucleus begins to warm, and volatiles evaporate. The evaporated molecules boil off and carry small solid particles with them, forming the comet's coma of gas and dust. When the nucleus is frozen, it can be seen only by reflected sunlight. However, when a coma develops, dust reflects still more sunlight, and gas in the coma absopbs ultraviolet radiation and begins to fluoresce. At about 5 AU from the Sun, fluorescence usually becomes more intense than reflected light. As the comet absorbs ultraviolet light, chemical processes release hydrogen, which escapes the comet's gravity, and forms a hydrogen envelope. This envelope cannot be seen from Earth because its light is absorbed by our atmosphere, but it has been detected by spacecraft. The Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind accelerate materials away from the comet's head at differing velocities according to the size and mass of the materials. Thus, relatively massive dust tails are accelerated slowly and tend to be curved. The ion tail is much less massive, and is accelerated so greatly that it appears as a nearly straight line extending away from the comet opposite the Sun. The following view of Comet West shows two distinct tails. The thin blue plasma tail is made up of gases and the broad white tail is made up of microscopic dust particles. Each time a comet visits the Sun, it loses some of its volatiles. Eventually, it becomes just another rocky mass in the solar system. For this reason, comets are said to be short-lived, on a cosmological time scale. Many scientists believe that some asteroids are extinct comet nuclei, comets that have lost all of their volatiles. Asteroids Asteroids are material left over from the formation of the solar system. One theory suggests that they are the remains of a planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago. More likely, asteroids are material that never coalesced into a planet. In fact, if the estimated total mass of all asteroids was gathered into a single object, the object would be less than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) across -- less than half the diameter of our Moon. Much of our understanding about asteroids comes from examining pieces of space debris that fall to the surface of Earth. Asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth are called meteoroids. When a meteoroid strikes our atmosphere at high velocity, friction causes this chunk of space matter to incinerate in a streak of light known as a meteor. If the meteoroid does not burn up completely, what's left strikes Earth's surface and is called a meteorite. Of all the meteorites examined, 92.8 percent are composed of silicate (stone), and 5.7 percent are composed of iron and nickel; the rest are a mixture of the three materials. Stony meteorites are the hardest to identify since they look very much like terrestrial rocks. Because asteroids are material from the very early solar system, scientists are interested in their composition. Spacecraft that have flown through the asteroid belt have found that the belt is really quite empty and that asteroids are separated by very large distances. Before 1991 the only information obtained on asteroids was though Earth based observations. Then on October 1991 asteroid 951 Gaspra was visited by the Galileo spacecraft and became the first asteroid to have hi-resolution images taken of it. Again on August 1993 Galileo made a close encounter with asteroid 243 Ida. This was the second asteroid to be visited by spacecraft. Both Gaspra and Ida are classified as S-type asteroids composed of metal-rich silicates. On June 27, 1997 the spacecraft NEAR made a high-speed close encounter with asteroid 253 Mathilde. This encounter gave scientists the first close-up look of a carbon rich C-type asteroid. This visit was unique because NEAR was not designed for flyby encounters. NEAR is an orbiter destined for asteroid Eros in January of 1999. Astronomers have studied a number of asteroids through Earth-based observations. Several notable asteroids are Toutatis, Castalia, Geographos and Vesta. Astronomers studied Toutatis, Geographos and Castalia using Earth-based radar observations during close approaches to the Earth. Vesta was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Asteroid Summary
* Mean distance from the Sun. Meteoroids and Meteorites One of the primary goals of studying meteorites is to determine the history and origin of their parent bodies. Several achondrites sampled from Antarctica since 1981 have conclusively been shown to have originated from the moon based on compositional matches of lunar rocks obtained by the Apollo missions of 1969-1972. Sources of other specific metorites remain unproven, although another set of eight achondrites are suspected to have come from Mars. These meteorites contain atmospheric gases trapped in shock melted minerals which match the composition of the Martian atmosphere as measured by the Viking landers in 1976. All other groups are presumed to have originated on asteroids or comets; the majority of meteorites are believed to be fragments of asteroids.
Meteorites have proven difficult to classify, but the three broadest groupings are stony, stony iron, and iron. The most common meteorites are chondrites, which are stony meteorites. Radiometric dating of chondrites has placed them at the age of 4.55 billion years, which is the approximate age of the solar system. They are considered pristine samples of early solar system matter, although in many cases their properties have been modified by thermal metamorphism or icy alteration. Some meteoriticists have suggested that the different properties found in various chondrites suggest the location in which they were formed. Enstatite chondrites contain the most refractory elements and are believed to have formed in the inner solar system. Ordinary chondrites, being the most common type containing both volatile and oxidized elements, are thought to have formed in the inner asteroid belt. Carbonaceous chondrites, which have the highest proportions of volatile elements and are the most oxidized, are thought to have originated in even greater solar distances. Each of these classes can be further subdivided into smaller groups with distinct properties. Other meteorite types which have been geologically processed are achondrites, irons and pallasites. Achondrites are also stony meteorites, but they are considered differentiated or reprocessed matter. They are formed by melting and recrystallization on or within meteorite parent bodies; as a result, achondrites have distinct textures and mineralogies indicative of igneous processes. Pallasites are stony iron meteorites composed of olivine enclosed in metal. Iron meteorites are classified into thirteen major groups and consist primarily of iron-nickel alloys with minor amounts of carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus. These meteorites formed when molten metal segregated from less dense silicate material and cooled, showing another type of melting behavior within meteorite parent bodies. Thus, meteoritescontain evidence of changes that occurred on the parent bodies from which they were removed or broken off, presumably by impacts, to be placed in the first of many revolutions. The motion of meteoroids can be severely perturbed by the gravitational fields of major planets. Jupiter's gravitational influence is capable of reshaping an asteroid's orbit from the main belt so that it dives into the inner solar system and crosses the orbit of Earth. This is apparently the case of the Apollo and Vesta asteroid fragments. Particles found in highly correlated orbits are called a stream components and those found in random orbits are called sporadic components. It is thought that most meteor streams are formed by the decay of a comet nucleus and consequently are spread around the original orbit of the comet. When Earth's orbit intersects a meteor stream, the meteor rate is increased and a meteor shower results. A meteor shower typically will be active for several days. A particularly intense meteor shower is called a meteor storm. Sporadic meteors are believed to have had a gradual loss of orbital coherence with a meteor shower due to collisions and radiative effects, further enhanced by gravitational influences. There is still some debate concerning sporadic meteors and their relationship with showers. |
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Comets are small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies composed of
a mixture of non-volatile grains and frozen gases. They have highly
elliptical orbits that bring them very close to the Sun and swing
them deeply into space, often beyond the orbit of Pluto.
Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun but
are too small to be considered planets. They are known as minor
planets. Asteroids range in size from Ceres, which has a
diameter of about 1000 km, down to the size of pebbles. Sixteen
asteroids have a diameter of 240 km or greater. They have been found
inside Earth's orbit to beyond Saturn's orbit. Most, however, are
contained within a main belt that exists between the orbits
of Mars and Jupiter. Some have orbits that cross Earth's path and
some have even hit the Earth in times past. One of the best
preserved examples is Barringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona.
The term meteor comes from the Greek meteoron, meaning
phenomenon in the sky. It is used to describe the streak of light
produced as matter in the solar system falls into Earth's atmosphere
creating temporary incandescence resulting from atmospheric
friction. This typically occurs at heights of 80 to 110 kilometers
(50 to 68 miles) above Earth's surface. The term is also used
loosely with the word meteroid referring to the particle itself
without relation to the phenomena it produces when entering the
Earth's atmosphere. A meteoroid is matter revolving around the sun
or any object in interplanetary space that is too small to be called
an asteroid or a comet. Even smaller particles are called
micrometeoroids or cosmic dust grains, which includes any
interstellar material that should happen to enter our solar system.
A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the surface of the Earth
without being completely vaporized.
