Phy 1040 - Chapter 12 Questions

1) Where is the asteroid belt located and why?

The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. The
reason for this is because the asteroids that make up the belt orbit
around Jupiter and Mars.

2) What does a comet look like when it is far from the Sun? How does its
appearance change when it is near the Sun?
When the comet is far from the Sun it looks like a dirty
snowball. Once it is near the Sun it looks like a bright ball with a
long tail.

3) Explain how meteor showers are linked to comets. Why do meteor

showers recur at about the same time every year?
As the comet passes sun, debris gets spread along its orbit
which causes the meteor showers when Earth moves through its
orbital path. The Earth passes through each of the orbital paths of
the comet debris fields at the same point in its orbit each year.

4) What is the Kuiper belt (the figures above show top and side view of the
belt)?
It is a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune that
contains many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of
ice.

5) Why do we believe Pluto to be a Kuiper belt object?

Because plutos composition is much like other Kuiper Belt objects,
there are other larger KBOS, also Triton is larger than pluto and is a KBO,
and Plutos orbit is similar to orbits of other KBOS.

The answers should be sent by one member of the group to my grader:

dhelberg@oakland.edu
The subject of your e-mail should read:
'Phy 1040 – Ch 12 Questions – Group … – your 3 lastnames'
Any inquiries should be directed to me at castoldi@oakland.edu