NATS 1740 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Carbonaceous Chondrite, Solar Wind, Protoplanet

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1740
• Professor: Tatiana Paulin

Document Summary

Two kinds of planets: the two kinds of planets are distinguished by their location. Any theory of the origin of planets needs to explain these properties. Comets: small, icy bodies that orbit the sun and produce tails of gas and dust when they approach the sun. Comet nuclei: contain ices of water and other volatile (easily vaporized) compounds. Short period: comets originate from the kuiper belt beyond neptune"s orbit, where thousands of small, icy objects exist. Long period: comets originate from the oort cloud, a roughly spherical region located about 1 ly from the. Meteoroid: a rock in space before it enters earth"s atmosphere. Meteor: a streak of light produced by a small bit of rock as it propagates through earth"s atmosphere. Meteorites: a meteoroid that survives the passage through the atmosphere and reaches earth"s surface. Iron meteorites: solid chunks of iron and nickel. Stony meteorites: silicate masses that resemble earth rocks.