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What Is A Comet?
METEORS
A comet is a very small solar system
body made mostly of ices mixed with
smaller amounts of dust and rock. A
comet is an icy body that releases gas
or dust. They are often compared to
dirty snowballs, though recent research
has led some scientists to call them
snowy dirt balls. Comets contain dust,
ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane
and more. Astronomers think comets
are leftovers from the gas, dust, ice and
rocks that initially formed the solar
system about 4.6 billion years ago.
Some researchers think comets might
have originally brought some of the
water and organic molecules to Earth
that now make up life here.
When a comet is heated by the Sun, its
ices begin to sublimate (similar to the
way dry ice fizzes when you leave it in
sunlight). The mixture of ice crystals
and dust blows away from the comet
nucleus in the solar wind, creating a
pair of tails. The dust tail is what we
normally see when we view comets from
Earth. A plasma tail also forms when
molecules of gas are excited by
ASTEROIDS
Shooting stars, or meteors, are bits of
interplanetary material falling through
Earth's atmosphere and heated to
incandescence by friction. These objects
are called meteoroids as they are
hurtling
through
space,
becoming
meteors for the few seconds they streak
across the sky and create glowing trails.
Scientists estimate that 44 tonnes
(44,000 kilograms, about 48.5 tons) of
meteoritic material falls on the Earth
each day. Several meteors per hour can
usually be seen on any given night.
Sometimes
the
number
increases
dramatically - these events are termed
meteor showers. Some occur annually
or at regular intervals as the Earth
passes through the trail of dusty debris
left by a comet. Meteor showers are
usually
named
after
a
star
or
constellation that is close to where the
This is one
small
step for a
man,
one GIANT
leap
for
mankind.
- Neil Armstrong
Nothing
like the
rain
when
youre in
outer
space.
- Unknown
SOLAR
SYSTEM
Submitted by:
Ronelyn S. Villena
8 Diamond
Submitted to:
Mrs. Jocelyn Tampon
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MEMBERS
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