Asteroid, Meteor,

Komet

Roslizah A.Samad
IPG Kampus Perempuan Melayu
Melaka

ASTEROID
Batuan kecil pelbagai saiz dari sekecil debu hingga
yang berdiameter beratus kilometer.
Ada kalanya dipanggil planet minor
Terjadi daripada bahan sisa sistem suria
Kebanyakannya beredar di dalam Jaluran Asteroid
iaitu orbit di antara Marikh dan Musytari.
Ceres adalah asteroid yang paling besar dan yang
pertama dijumpai.
Kini terdapat lebih 100,000 telah ditemui
Gaspra yang terletak dipinggir jaluran asteroid
berbenstuk tak sekata dan berdiameter 12 km.

Ida Dan Gaspra

Gambar menunjukkan
asteroid Ida yang diambil
oleh kapal angkasa Galileo
pada 28 Ogos 1993, lebih
kurang 3.5 minutes sebelum
kapal angkasa itu mendekati
asteroid tersebut.
Gambar menunjukkan banyak
kawah, dan antaranya lebih
besar daripada kawah pada
Gaspra.

Asteroids

METEOROID
Merupakan objek berbatu paling kecil yang
wujud dalam sistem suria.
Mugkin berasal dari serpihan komet atau
asteroid
Serpihan yang berlanggar dengan permukaan
bumi dipanggil meteorit.
Terbentuk akibat fregmentasi asteroid terdiri
daripada dua jenis iaitu :
Siderit (besi)
Aerolit (batu)

METEOR
Terhasil apabila meteoroid berlanggar dengan
zarah dalam atmosfera bumi.
Ini kerana meteoroid bergerak pada had laju
yang tinggi menghasilkan haba yang banyak.
Zarah-zarah di sekeliling meteoroid akan
memperolehi cukup tenaga untuk di anionkan.
Menyebabkan meteor kelihatan sebagai coretan
cahaya di langit.
Dikenali sebagai shooting stars
Hujan meteor boleh dilihat pada masa-masa
tertentu dalam setahun.

Sambungan meteor ..
Berlaku apabila orbit bumi membawanya ke
kawasan aliran meteoroid.
Contohnya :
Perseid (boleh kelihatan dari 15 Nov 19 Nov)
Leonid

METEORIT
Kebanyakan meteor akan mengewap sebaik
sebelum ia berhentam dengan bumi.
Walau bagaimanapun jika batuan meteoroid
cukup besar ia akan melepasi atmosphera bumi
dan menghentam permukaan bumi.
Meteoroid yang jatuh ke bumi dikenali sebagai
meteorit.
Ini akan menghasilkan satu kawah di muka bumi.
Contohnya : di Arizona sedalam 175 meter dan
diameternya 1265 meter.

Kawah Meteorit
Kebanyakan meteorite
kecil dan tidak
meninggalkan kesan
kawah yang besar
Terdapat lebih 150
kesan kawah dijumpai di
bumi
Contohnya Kawah
Barringer yang
terbentuk 50,000 tahun
lalu oleh meteorit yang
berdiameter ~ 80
100m

Impact Craters on Earth

Much larger impact features exist on Earth:

Impact of a large body formed a crater ~ 180
300 km in diameter in the Yucatn peninsula, ~ 65
million years ago.
Drastic influence on climate on Earth; possibly
responsible for extinction of dinosaurs.

Mencari Meteorit
Tempat paling baik
untuk ditemui ialah
Antartika
Falls = meteorites
which have been
observed to fall
fall time known.
Finds = meteorites
with unknown fall time

Menganalysis Meteorit
3 kategori utama
Iron
meteorites
Stony-Iron
meteorite
Stony
meteorites

Asal Usul Meteorit

Mungkin daripada solar nebula ~ 4.6 billion tahun lalu
Bukan daripada komet
Mungkin juga daripada supernova berhampiran iaitu
100,000 sebelum sistem suria terbentuk
Mungkin juga berasal daripada asteroid

KOMET
Perkataan komet dari perkataan Yunani kometes
yang bermaksud rambut panjang.
Terdiri daripada tiga bahagian iaitu nukleus,koma
dan ekor.
Nukleus komet terbentuk daripada ketulan ais yang
mengandungi habuk dan gas beku.
Komet tidak selalunya mempunyai ekor.
Komet kelihatan berbara dan berekor apabila
menghampiri matahari kerana bahan beku di dalam
nukleus komet akan mencair dan mengewap.
Angin suria akan menolak gas dan habuk ke
belakang.
Ini menyebabkan ekor komet menjauhi matahari.

Sambungan komet

Lama-kelamaan ia akan menyusut sehingga hilang.

Sebahagian komet mempunyai orbit berbentuk elips.
Mengambil masa beberapa tahun hingga berjuta-juta
tahun untuk membuat satu orbit yang lengkap.
Bentuk ekornya sentiasa kelihatan menjauhi matahari.
Ekornya semakin panjang apabila komet semakin cerah.
Kemudian ekornya menjadi pendek dan hilang.
Menjadikan ia kelihatan seperti bebola api yang
berekor.
Setiap kali komet melintasi matahari sebahagian
gasnya, hilang dan butir-butir habuk sahaja jatuh ke
bumi.

Jenis komet

Komet Shoemakers
Komet Halley
Komet Enke
Komet Hyakutake
Komet Shoe_Levy

Comets
Icy nucleus, which evaporates
and gets blown into space by
solar wind pressure.

Mostly objects in highly elliptical orbits,

occasionally coming close to the sun.

COMETS
Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs or "icy mudballs".
They are a mixture of ices (both water and frozen gases) and dust
that for
some reason didn't get incorporated into planets when the solar
system was formed. This makes them very interesting as samples
of the early history of the solar system.
Comets have
elliptical
orbits.

Comet Halley in
1910

When we see a comet, we

are seeing the tail of the
comet
as comes close to the Sun.

Comets
Chunk of ice and dirt following an elongated
elliptical orbit.
DVD Weather- Wind Chp 9 (Solar Wind)
Has a tail only when it comes close to the sun.
The heat melts it and the solar wind sweeps
the tail away.
The tail always points away from the sun.

Comets
Dirty snowballs - small objects of ice,
gas, dust, tiny traces of organic
material

Comets of History
Throughout history, comets have been considered
as portents of doom, even very recently:

Appearances of comet Kohoutek

(1973), Halley (1986), and HaleBopp (1997) caused great concern
among superstitious.

Comet Hyakutake in 1996

Comet Parts

Nucleus, Coma
Dust tail white, smoke, reflects sun. 600,000 to 6 million miles long
Ion tail Solar UV breaks down CO gas, making them glow blue. 10s of millions of
miles

Two Types of Tails

Ion tail: Ionized gas pushed
away from the comet by
the solar wind. Pointing
straight away from the sun.
Dust tail: Dust set free
from vaporizing ice in
the comet; carried away
from the comet by the
suns radiation
pressure. Lagging
behind the comet along
its trajectory

Gas and Dust Tails of Comet Mrkos in 1957

Comet Hale Bopp

(1997)

Comet Ikeya-Seki
(1965)

Dust Jets from Comet Nuclei

Jets of dust are ejected
radially from the nuclei of
comets.

Comet Hale-Bopp, with uniform corona

digitally removed from the image.
Comet dust material can be collected by
spacecraft above Earths atmosphere.

Fragmenting Comets
Comet Linear apparently completely
vaporized during its sun passage in
2000.

Only small rocky fragments

remained.

The Geology of Comet Nuclei

Materials that should have
condensed from the outer
solar nebula.

Those
compounds
sublime
(transition
from solid
directly to gas
phase) as
comets
approach the
sun.
Densities of comet nuclei: ~ 0.1 0.25 g/cm 3

Not solid ice balls, but fluffy material

with significant amounts of empty space.

Comet nuclei
contain ices of
water, carbon
dioxide,
methane,
ammonia, etc.:

Fragmentation of Comet Nuclei

Comet nuclei are
very fragile and
are easily
fragmented.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy
was disrupted by tidal
forces of Jupiter
Two chains of impact
craters on Earths moon
and on Jupiters moon
Callisto may have been
caused by fragments of
a comet.

The Origin of Comets

Comets are believed to
originate in the Oort
cloud:

10,000
1 0 0, 000

Spherical cloud of several

trillion icy bodies, ~ 10,000
100,000 AU from the sun.
AU

Oort Cloud

Gravitational influence of
occasional passing stars may
perturb some orbits and draw
them towards the inner solar
system.
Interactions with planets may
perturb orbits further,
capturing comets in shortperiod orbits.

The Kuiper Belt

Kuiper belt, at ~ 30 100
AU from the sun.
Second source of small, icy
bodies in the outer solar
system:
Few Kuiper belt objects
could be observed directly
by Hubble Space Telescope.
Pluto and Charon may be
captured Kuiper belt
objects.

Impacts on Earth
Comet nucleus impact producing the Chicxulub crater ~ 65 million years
ago may have caused major climate change, leading to the extinction of
many species, including dinosaurs.

Gravity map shows the extent of the

crater hidden below limestone
deposited since the impact.

Comet Planet Interactions

What happens when Earth passes

through the path of a comet?
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through the
trail of dust and gas left by a comet along its elliptical
orbit.
The particles enter Earth's atmosphere and most burn up
in a lively light show a meteor shower.
Some meteor showers, such as the Perseids in August and
the Leonids in November, occur annually when Earth's
orbit takes it through the debris path left along the
comet's orbit.
Comet Halley's trails are responsible for the Orionids
meteor shower. For upcoming meteor showers and viewing
suggestions, explore Sky and Telescope's
Meteor Showers page.

Discussion Questions
1. Futurists suggest that we may someday mine the
asteroids for materials to build and supply space
colonies. What kinds of materials could we get from
asteroids? (Hint: What are S-, M-, and C-type
asteroids made of?)
2. If cometary nuclei were heated by internal
radioactive decay rather than by solar heat, how would
comets differ from what we observe?
3. From what you know now, do you think the
government should spend money to locate near-Earth
asteroids? How serious is the risk?