Brad Wahlgren

Comets
Are small cosmic bodies that have an

ellipsoidal orbit around the sun

Composed of rock, dust, ice, and frozen
gasses
Comets do not become spherical because of
their low mass and gravity
Have irregular shapes because of low mass
and gravity
Range from 100 meters to 40 kilometers
across

Comets Continued
Gasses found on comets include Carbon

Monoxide and Dioxide, Ammonia, Methane,

Ethanol, and Ethane, etc
Comet Tails
As comets approach sun, solar radiation
causes particles from the comet to dissipate,
and peel off of comet leaving trail of dust
Escaping gas and dust create quasiatmosphere called coma

Comet Tails
Solar Winds and Radiation exert pressure on

atmosphere causing tail to form

Tail and Coma make comet visible to Earth
Comas and tails vary in size
Tails can be up to 150 million km in length
Comas can be larger than planets
Comet tails leave trails of debris which can
contribute to meteor showers

Orbit
Patterns/Classifications
of
Have ellipsoidal orbits which come close to
Comets
sun for periods of time, and extend outward
towards outer planets
Classified by length of orbits

Orbit Classifications
Short Period Comets: have orbits less than

200 years and are divided into two subclasses

Subclasses: Jupiter Family: has orbit periods of
less than twenty years. Halley Family has
orbits from 20-200 years
Long Period Comets: have orbit periods
ranging from two hundred to several thousand
years, and remain gravitationally bound to the
sun, and therefore never go out of orbit

Classifications(continued)
Single Apparation Comets: Have long

orbits periods, but these periods change due

to gravitational pull by outer planets
All comet orbits are affected by the gravity of
the giant planets they orbit by, and are
constantly subject to change.
Comets can leave the solar system if they
travel fast enough
Other exhaust themselves, and disintegrate,
but others collide with celestial objects.

Asteroids
Are small bodies that orbit the sun
Millions of asteroids in the solar system
Though to be remnants of planetismals which

are small bodies that werent large enough to

grow into planets
Many of the asteroids in the solar system are
found in the asteroid belt

Makeup of Asteroids
Several different types of asteroids and within

this classes of asteroids as far as physical

makeup goes
Jupiter Trojans
Near-Earth Asteroids-both explained later
C-type-makeup that consists mainly of carbon
S-type-Mostly rock and stone
M-type-metallic

Groups of Asteroids
Asteroid Belt- Contains roughly 1.5 million

asteroids with a diameter larger than 1 km,

and several million more that are smaller than
that
Trojan Asteroids share orbit with a moon, or
orbit very close to a planet. Many of these
Trojans can be found near Jupiter so they have
the name Jupiter Trojans.
Near-Earth Asteroids: pass close to Earth in
their orbits

Physical Makeup
The composition of asteroids is very different

for each asteroid, and all can contain different

minerals and elements.
Can contain iron, nickel, and other metals
Found to contain amino acids which is a
characteristic shared with comets
Classifications
Can be classified by orbits such as horseshoe
and quasi-satellites, or by their reflections of
light.

Comparing Asteroids with

Comets
After research, I dont think there are many differences

between the two. Both contain ice, rock, and minerals,

and both orbit the sun. Each can be very large in size,
and very small. However one of the main differences
between the two is that comets have atmospheres
that are created by their orbit, and their shapes are
created by gravity, whereas asteroids are created by
breaking of dwarf planets, etc. Comets also have their
tails which are again, created by orbit, and comets
change their physical makeup during orbit, but
asteroids dont. In addition, asteroids contain some of
the same materials as comets such as amino acids,
which is an interesting possible coincidence.

Meteroids
A Meteroid is a sand to bolder sized particle in the

solar system. Its visible path of light is called a

Meteor, and if a meteroid falling to Earth survives
the impact, it is called a meterite.(quoted from
Wikipedia).
Meteroids have very different physical makeups
and can range from being 25% ice to metallic
balls that are very dense
Also vary in size from being less than 1 meter in
length to being 50 meters in length
All orbit the sun, but with varying speeds

Meteors
Occur most often in Mesophere
Several million daily occurences
Created because of atmospheric pressure on

meteroid during entry to Earth

This creates a trail of gases and rocks which
create the visible meteor that one may see

Comparing with Comets and

Asteroids
Meteroids/Meteors are different than comets and
asteroids in the sense that they are much smaller
than comets and asteroids, at times only 1 meter
in diameter. Comets and Asteroids can be very
large, even one hundred meters apart. However
Meteoroids can be similar to comets, because
comets have tails and atmosphere created by
pressure, and Meteoroids have meteors created
during entry to Earth because of pressure, which is
similar to a tail because it is a streaming cloud of
gases and rock. All of the three things contain ice,
metal, and gases which gives them one of their
only similarities.

Moons
Is a body that orbits another cosmic body

larger or smaller than itself.

Believed to be created by a collapsing area of
a newborn star, and most of the same time the
same area that created the object its orbiting
Others created by collision of two protoplanetary objects
Physical Makeup
May have tectonic activity, and contain water,
methane, rock, iron, ect.

Different Orbits
Most moons have orbits in the same direction as

their planets rotation, and this is called a regular

orbit.
Others have orbits that go against the rotation of
their planets and these are called irregular orbits.
Moons can orbit things such as asteroids
Shapes of Moons
Most moons have rounded ellipsoidal shapes, and
have very wide polar sides. Smaller moons have
egg shapes, etc, but no moon is perfectly spherical

Comparing Moons, with

Asteroids,
Comets,
and
Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids all orbit the
sun, but moons orbit planets and larger or smaller
Meteoroids

bodies, even satellites. However the definition of a

moon is a body that orbits a larger and smaller
body, so the three bodies could be considered
moons. Geologically, all have ice, dust, and rock.
Moons are larger than meteroids most of the time,
and larger than most comets and asteroids, but
some comets and asteroids are larger than moons.
Moons have no atmosphere like a comet or tail like
feature like a comet or meteor.

Lunar Phases
Is how we see the moon from Earth, and how

much of the moon is being illuminated by the

sun, or in shadow
the moon is lit by the sun
New Moon happens when the moon is
between the Earth and the Sun
Full Moon is when the whole sunlit portion of
the moon is facing us
At a half moon the moon is at a 90 degree
angle with the Sun and Earth so we see half
the moon in light and half in shadow

Moons Effects On Earth

Tides: Created by the Moons gravitational pull from

one side of the Earth to the other. The two tidal

bulges are formed, and dragged along the Earths
surface as it rotates faster than the Moon.
Solar Eclipses: Created when the Moon, Earth, and
Sun are all in a straight line. During a solar eclipse,
the moon is between the Sun and Earth and the
Earth is plunged into darkness.
Time: The moon helped the primitive man tell time
Folklore: The moons orbit helped influence
storytelling and created stories such as the Werewolf
which influenced culture throughout history.

Second Moon
Affect on the Tides: If there was a second moon,

it would/ could seriously affect how the tides

function as far as their strength goes. If the
second moon was as large as the first, the
gravitational pull on Earth would seriously
increase the distance the ocean went inland at
high tide, and affect the distance it went back in
low tide.
Lunar Eclipses would be affected if there was a
second moon, because they could both be in the
way of the sun blocking it out.

Moon Distance
Increased/Decreased
The affect on the tides would be affected if the

distance was decreased because the moons

gravitational pull would be less intense on the Earth
because of the distance away, so the tides would be
less powerful, or more powerful if the distance was
increased.
If the moon was closer to the Earth, it might totally
block out all light from the sun during a solar
eclipse\
The Space Race would have been affected because
it wouldnt of taken as advanced technology to reach
the moon so Russia may have gotten to the moon
first.