ASTR 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Kuiper Belt, Orbital Resonance, Oort Cloud
Document Summary
Many lie in the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. Named for starlike points of light when seen in telescopes. Comes from greek word for hair referencing appearance of tails which most don"t have. Gradual motion relative to constellations noticed over many days: can stay visible for weeks. Most remain in outer reaches of solar system orbiting in kuiper belt and oort cloud. Those seen on earth had orbits changed by gravitational influences causing drift to inner system. Few like halley"s comet are on elliptical orbits bringing them close to sun. Categorized for small bodies large enough to be round. In composition, large objects of kuiper belt are large comets. Meteors are a flash of light caused by a particle of dust/rock entering atmosphere at high speed, Meteorites are rocks from space that survive the plunge in atmosphere not particle itself. Total mass of all asteroids much less than mass of any terrestrial planet.
