Major Theme: Remnant building blocks of the solar system
Learning Objectives
- List the categories of small bodies and identify their locations in the solar system.
- Describe the defining characteristics of the dwarf planets in the solar system.
- Describe the origin of the different types of asteroids, comets, and meteorites.
- Explain how asteroids, comets, and meteoroids provide important clues about the history and formation of the Solar System.
- Describe what has been learned from observations of recent impacts in the Solar System.
Outline:
Asteroids are pieces of the past
- The distribution of asteroids
- The composition and classification of asteroids
- Asteroids viewed up close
Comets are clumps of ice
- The homes of the comets
- Kuiper Belt
- Oort Cloud
- The orbits of comets
- Anatomy of an active comet
- Visits to comets
Collisions still happen today
- Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Collided with Jupiter
- Collisions with Earth
- Impact Energy
Meteorites are remnants of the early solar system.
- Observations of meteors
- Types of meteoroids
- Meteorites and the history of the Solar System
- Zodiacal dust
Dwarf planets may outnumber planets
- Pluto, Lone Dog no more
- Eris, Haumea, and Makemake
- Ceres
- Eccentric orbits
Activities & Assignments:
- Minor Bodies Class Notes
- Read Astronomy textbook: Chapter 13; Chapter 14 (sections 14.1, 14.2).
- Modelling impacts – see the instructions in the class notes folder. The activity uses an impact modelling system developed at Purdue University.
- Lab 10: Asteroids and Small Bodies Lab (see lab manual). For step 2: use the light curve simulator.
Resources:
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Comets: When Knowledge Conquered Darkness
PhET: My Solar System (a simulation of scattered disk objects)
