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Comets. Small dusty/icy chunk of material few kms size (often characterized as “dirty snowball”) Originally condensed out of Solar nebula and still orbit Sun - primitive material Orbits often elliptical, large aphelion Partially vaporized when close to Sun - material
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Comets • Small dusty/icy chunk of material few kms size (often characterized as “dirty snowball”) • Originally condensed out of Solar nebula and still orbit Sun - primitive material • Orbits often elliptical, large aphelion • Partially vaporized when close to Sun - material (gases) then pushed by sunlight makes long tail • Gas tail always points away from Sun • Also dust tail along orbit
Pushed by Sun Dust along comet’s orbit PARTS of a COMET
Dust trail Dust trail Ion trail Ion trail Comet Hale-bop COMET TAIL ORIENTATION
About the mass of Mt. Baker RECIPE for a COMET • Ingredients • Frozen methane • Frozen water • Frozen ammonia • Dust grains (dirt) • Traces of organic compounds and other chemicals • Directions • Mix into a ball about 10 km across containing 100,000,000,000,000, (1014) kg of this mixture
1986 COMET HALLEY’S PATH 1910 and 1986 1910
ORIGIN of LONG PERIOD COMETS • Originate in Oort Cloud • a huge reservoir • ancient Solar System • material far from Sun • likely produced by • planetesimals ejected • by Jupiter and Saturn • Early on from inner • Solar System. • Passing star perturbes • Cloud sends lumps • inward - see as comets • when near Sun.
KUIPER BELTPlanetesimals ejected from inner Solar System by stronggravitational fields of Giant Planets - some interact Jupiter and Saturn flung far out to Oort Cloud, interactions Uranus and Neptune pushed them out to Kuiper Belt Kuiper Belt
KUIPER BELT OBJECTS Pluto + 3 Moons Sedna e =0.86 Perihelion 76 AU Aphelion 975 AU! P =12,000 years
METEORS AND METEORITES Meteors are parts of comets that pass through Earth’s orbit - burn up in Earth’s atmosphere Meteorites are ground up pieces of asteroids - off orbit - enter Earth’s atmosphere and survive passage
Meteor Shower Comet breakup near perihelion Material spread out along orbit If Earth passes through comet debris - shower
A METEOR STORM Leonid Shower 1833 Wood Cut
ANTARCTIC METEORITE Easiest to find meteorites against snow. Most found in Arctic or Antarctic Primitive material - planetesimals - useful for dating Solar System Many varieties - stony, metallic, often contain organic material