AST101H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Hubble Space Telescope, Oort Cloud, Oids
Document Summary
Meteoroids: can"t see them but some of them hit earth. An object that looks like a star, but it orbits the sun. More than 400,000 asteroids have been catalogued. Most asteroids orbit between mars and jupiter = main asteroid belt : jupiter"s powerful gravity controls the spacing of these orbits. Also some asteroids are in jupiter"s orbit: located ahead of, or following, jupiter, these are captured by gravity of jupiter + sun. A few asteroids have elliptical orbits: orbit from close to sun and to beyond jupiter. Meteoroids are tiny asteroids, rocks too small to observe from earth. When one hits earth"s atmosphere: it heats up from air friction, it gives off a flash of life as it disintegrates. Becomes a meteor or shooting star : if it large enough to survive and reach the ground it becomes a meteorite . The names don"t really matter, can be used interchangeably.
