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Asteroid and comets

In addition to the planets and their moons, the solar system teems with small bodies following their own independent elliptical paths around the Sun. Variously called asteroids, minor planets, comets, or just small bodies, these tumbling rocks and iceballs are remnants of the formation of the solar system. We can distinguish between a comet and an asteroid solely on the basis of the object's appearance through a telescope. If a newly discovered object appears fuzzy, then it is a comet. A large population of asteroids travels around the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. A large population of cometary nuclei can be found outside the orbit of Neptune. Asteroids, or minor planets, are small, rocky (or sometimes metallic) bodies with no atmospheres Asteroids are also categorized by their locations in the solar system. Earth lies at a distance of 1 astronomical unit (AU) -- the size of Earths orbit, 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles -- from the Sun. Asteroids that orbit near this distance are of particular interest to Earthlings. Main Belt: Most minor planets orbit the Sun in the main asteroid belt, a vast ring of hundreds of thousands of rocky objects circling between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, from 2 to 4 AU from the Sun. These objects are believed to be leftover fragments from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists suspect that these fragments were prevented from accreting into larger objects because of Jupiter's massive gravitational pull. As Jupiter orbited outside the asteroid belt, its gravity would tug on the small bodies, disturbing

Asteroids
Asteroids are the small rocky objects in the Solar System. The largest asteroid is Ceres, which is 933 kilometers (580 miles) across. The smallest asteroids that we've observed in detail are only tens of meters in size, but there are probably a great number of small rocks in space that are currently too small for us to detect. Many asteroids, including all of the largest asteroids, orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter in the Asteroid Belt. The Trojan asteroids share Jupiter's orbital path, but stay 60 degrees ahead or behind Jupiter. NearEarth Asteroids orbit the sun in the vicinity of the rocky terrestrial planets and pose the greatest threat to Earth. We think that the total mass of all the asteroids combined is less than that of the Moon.

Comets
Comets are small, irregularly shaped objects composed of a mixture of rocks, dust, and what astronomers refer to as ice -- frozen water, methane, and ammonia. Comets are objects composed mostly of ice and dust that grow tails when they approach the sun. All comets have a nucleus, which is the hard rock/ice object. When a comet nucleus nears the sun, solar energy begins to heat the ice and vaporize it. Like asteroids, comets are studied through spectral analysis of the light reflected and absorbed by the comet nucleus and the spray of volatiles and gas in the comet's coma. When the nucleus is frozen, it can be seen only by reflected sunlight, and many comets are extremely dark (low-albedo) objects Comets are divided into two groups based on their orbital periods (the time it takes them to travel around the Sun). Short-period comets have orbital periods of less than 200 years. Their elliptical orbits can take them out to the Kuiper belt, but not beyond

comets
Long-period comets have orbital periods longer than 200 years, often many thousands of years. Their elliptical orbits are so long that they are very difficult to differentiate from parabolas. The existence of long-period comets led to the prediction of the existence of the Oort cloud, a diffuse sphere of cometary nuclei, orbiting quietly at the farthest reaches of the Suns gravitational influence. Passing stars may occasionally disturb the bodies in the Oort cloud, sending some on trajectories that take them into the inner solar system

comets
A catastrophic cometary collision with Earth is only likely to happen at several-million-year intervals on average, so we need not be overly concerned with a threat of this type. However, it is prudent to mount efforts to discover and study these objects, to characterize their sizes, compositions and structures, and to keep an eye upon their future trajectories. With visits to asteroids and comets, we can also learn about which strategies may prove effective in mitigating a possible future impact threat. When will Halley's Comet return? When will we be seeing Halley's Comet again? Halley's Comet's last appearance was in 1986, and its average period of revolution around the Sun is 76 years. But it turns out that the gravitational pull of the giant planets creates variations in that period of up to a few years (so the time between successive appearances isn't always exactly 76 years). Its next appearance should be in 2061.

Comets and asteroids


As with asteroids, comets are both a potential threat and a potential resource for the colonization of the solar system in the twenty-first century. Whereas asteroids are rich in the mineral raw materials required to build structures in space, the comets are rich resources for water and carbon-based molecules necessary to sustain life. In addition, an abundant supply of cometary water ice can provide copious quantities of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the two primary ingredients in rocket fuel. One day, comets may serve as fueling stations for interplanetary spacecraft.

Meteors
Meteors are the short, white trails across the sky that we call "shooting stars." They are caused by small pea-sized pieces of interplanetary dust that burn up when they slam into the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds. Meteor showers happen when Earth passes through the orbital path of a comet that left a lot of dust behind. Earth plows through the dust, and the particles form meteors as they hit the atmosphere. Occasionally a small rock may fall through the atmosphere, causing an extremely bright and colorful streak across the sky called a fireball. (These are often mistaken for comets, but comets do not streak across the sky quickly; they are usually visible for many days.) Sometimes fireball rocks are not completely vaporized, and they impact Earth's surface. A rock that fell from space this way is called a meteorite.

Movement of the sun /time


Time differences due to the rotation of the earth.

Phases of The Moon


The Moon is a cold, rocky body about 2,160 miles (3,476 km) in diameter. It has no light of its own but shines by sunlight reflected from its surface. The Moon orbits Earth about once every 29 and a half days. As it circles our planet, the changing position of the Moon with respect to the Sun causes our natural satellite to cycle through a series of phases: New Moon > New Crescent > First Quarter > Waxing Gibbous > Full Moon > Waning Gibbous > Last Quarter > Old Crescent > New Moon (again)

Moon phases
The apparent size of the Moon varies because the orbit of the Moon is elliptical, and as a consequence at one time it is nearer to the Earth (perigee) than half an orbit later (apogee). The orbital period of the Moon from perigee to apogee and back to perigee is called the anomalistic month. The appearance, or phase, of the Moon is due to its motion with respect to the Sun. It varies in a period of time called a lunation, also called synodic month. The age is the number of days since new moon.

Moon phases
The ellipticity of the orbit also causes the duration of a half lunation to depend on where in the elliptical orbit it begins, and so affects the age of the full moon. - See Jawad (1993). The full moon cycle is slightly less than 14 synodic months and slightly less than 15 anomalistic months. Its significance is that when you start with a large full moon at the perigee, then subsequent full moons will occur ever later after the passage of the perigee; after 1 full moon cycle, the accumulated difference between the number of completed anomalistic months and the number of completed synodic months is exactly 1.

Lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes. The next total lunar eclipse occurs on December 21, 2010. The next eclipse of the Moon is a penumbral eclipse on July 7, 2009.

Types of lunar eclipses


The shadow of the Earth can be divided into two distinctive parts: the umbra and penumbra. Within the umbra, there is no direct solar radiation. However, as a result of the Sun's large angular size, solar illumination is only partially blocked in the outer portion of the Earth's shadow, which is given the name penumbra. A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's penumbra. The penumbra does not cause any noticeable darkening of the Moon's surface, though some may argue it turns a little yellow. A special type of penumbral eclipse is a total penumbral eclipse, during which the Moon lies exclusively within the Earth's penumbra. Total penumbral eclipses are rare, and when these occur, that portion of the Moon which is closest to the umbra can appear somewhat darker than the rest of the Moon.

Telescope
It is a telescope's ability to capture light that makes these objects easier to see, not its magnifying power. And a telescope's lightgathering capability is directly related to the size of its primary lens or mirror. The bigger the size, or aperture, of the main optical element, the more light it will collect, and thus the brighter an object will appear. Calculating Magnification The magnification is the telescope focal length divided by the eyepiece focal length, in millimeters. Magnification = Telescope focal length divided Eyepiece focal lengthFor example, if you use a telescope of 1000mm focal length with a 25mm eyepiece, the magnification would be 40x (1000mm 25 = 40). Doubling the power gives you one-fourth the image brightness and reduces the sharpness by one half.

Solar system
Early Greeks held the geocentric ("Earthcentered") view of the universe, believing that Earth was a sphere that stayed motionless at the center of the universe. Orbiting Earth were the Moon, Sun, and the known planetsMercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn

Solar system

Solar systems
The solar system is comprised of a single star, orbited by several major bodies (planets) and many minor bodies. The planes of the orbits of the planets are closely aligned with one another (recall that the orbits of the planets lay close to the ecliptic), meaning that it is not unreasonable to think of the solar system as a flat structure. Radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites suggest that the solar system formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago

Solar system
The planets inside the orbit of the earth are called the Inferior Planets: Mercury and Venus. The planets outside the orbit of the earth are called the Superior Planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The planets inside the asteroid belt are termed the Inner Planets (or the Terrestrial Planets): Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The planets outside the asteroid belt are termed the Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The planets sharing the gaseous structure of Jupiter are termed the Gas Giant (or Jovian) Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Motion of planets
In addition to the stars, the Sun, and the Moon, there are several other objects in the sky which are easily visible at night.

From the ancient perspective, a planet is a point of light in the sky that moves relative to the stars, much as the Sun and Moon do.
The name comes from the Greek for "wanderer

motion of planets
Like the Sun and the Moon, the planets all move near the ecliptic, never being more than a few degrees away. The planets move slowly enough that their positions change only slightly from night to night. They therefore rise in the east and set in the west as part of the sky's diurnal motion. Relative to the stars, however, the planets generally move from west to east , like the Sun and Moon. Their speeds vary, but Mercury is the fastest, followed by Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and then Saturn, the slowest. This motion is called direct motion.

Motion of planets
What distinguishes the planets from the Sun and Moon is that they will also sometimes reverse their motion, travelling from east to west relative to the stars. This reverse motion is known as retrograde motion. Retrograde motion can last from weeks (Mercury) to months (Saturn).

The image below displays the actual retrograde motion of Jupiter (brighter) and Saturn (dimmer) over eleven months:

Why do some scientists consider Pluto to Not Be a Planet?


Since its discovery in 1930 until 2006, Pluto was considered a planet, just like the others in the Solar System. But in 2005, Caltech researcher Mike Brown announced that he had discovered a new object which was more distant, but larger in the Solar System. The International Astronomical Union met in Prague in 2006 to make a final decision. They decided that a planet must fulfill three criteria: It must orbit the Sun It must have enough mass to pull itself into a spherical shape It must have cleared out the other objects in its orbit.

Is Pluto a planet?
It's this 3rd part where Pluto falls down. Pluto has only a fraction of the mass of the rest of the objects in its orbit, while the rest of the planets have essentially cleared theirs out completely. Does Pluto have moons? It does, but even with the mass of its moons, Pluto still doesn't dominate its orbit. Pluto, Eris and the Asteroid Ceres were given the new designation of "dwarf planet".

Is Pluto a planet?
Pluto was first discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona. Astronomers had long predicted that there would be a ninth planet in the Solar System, which they called Planet X. Only 22 at the time, Tombaugh was given the laborious task of comparing photographic plates. These were two images of a region of the sky, taken two weeks apart. Any moving object, like an asteroid, comet or planet, would appear to jump from one photograph to the next. After a year of observations, Tombaugh finally discovered an object in the right orbit, and declared that he had discovered Planet X. Because they had discovered it, the Lowell team were allowed to name it. They settled on Pluto, a name suggested by an 11-year old school girl in Oxford, England (no, it wasn't named after the Disney character, but the Roman god of the underworld). The Solar System now had 9 planets.

Is Pluto a planet?
Astronomers weren't sure about Pluto's mass until the discovery of its largest Moon, Charon, in 1978. And by knowing its mass (0.0021 Earths), they could more accurately gauge its size. The most accurate measurement currently gives the size of Pluto at 2,400 km (1,500 miles) across. Although this is small, Mercury is only 4,880 km (3,032 miles) across. Pluto is tiny, but it was considered larger than anything else past the orbit of Neptune. Over the last few decades, powerful new ground and space-based observatories have completely changed previous understanding of the outer Solar System. Instead of being the only planet in its region, like the rest of the Solar System, Pluto and its moons are now known to be just a large example of a collection of objects called the Kuiper Belt. This region extends from the orbit of Neptune out to 55 astronomical units (55 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun).

Is Pluto a planet?
Is Pluto a planet? Does it qualify? For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the IAU: It needs to be in orbit around the Sun - Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet. It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape - Plutocheck It needs to have "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit - Uh oh. Here's the rule breaker. According to this, Pluto is not a planet.

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