Comets, Asteroids and Meteorites
What you'll learn
- Large object impacts on Earth, the moon and throughout the solar system
- Effects of atmosphere and erosion on impact sites
- Differences and similarities between asteroids, comets and metereorites
- What our ancestors through of comets and where they came from
- Where comets originate from: Oort Cloud
- Predicting comet appearances in the sky
- Edmund Halley and halley's comet
- The meticulous tracking of comets by the ancient Chinese and it's impact on the discovery of the true nature of comets
- Comet composition and structure; dust tail, ion tail, nucleus and submilimation
- The Kuiper Belt
- Trans-Neptunian objects
- Jupiter-Family comets
- Comet naming conventions and discoveries
- The International Astronomical Union
- Comet Shoemaker and it high profile crash into Jupiter
- Evidence of comet impacts throughout the solar system
- Comets meet the Sun!
- Comet speeds
- Missions to comets for study
- The Rosetta mission and the Philae comet lander
- Periodic comets: long-term and short term comets
- Asteroid composition
- Missions to asteroids
- The asteroid belt
- Dwarf planets
- Mining asteroids for metals and minerals
- Asteroids with moon, tails and rings
- Tracking potentially hazardous asteroids and near-Earth objects
- What the difference between meteors and meteorites?
- Meteors, Meteorites and the Earth - overview of known impact sights
- Meteor Showers
- Warm-up activities
- Test Questions and Answers
- Cross Curricular and Extension Activities
Requirements
- None
Description
Comets are among the most beautiful astronomical objects in our sky, but brought fear to our ancestors when they appeared. Find out what comets are and where they come from in this lesson. What’s the difference between a comet an asteroid and a meteorite? Could one of these objects really hit the Earth? You will know after streaking through the solar system with this lesson.
This Course includes the following great BONUS LESSONS:
What on Earth is Astronomy?
Mini-Lesson: Eclipses
Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers
Mini-Lesson: Aurora
Comets, Asteroids and Meteorites
1. Objective
2. Warm-up activity
3. General overview of large object impacts in the Solar System
4. Why some objects are impacted more than others
5. Atmosphere
6. Erosion
7. Impacts on Earth and the Moon
8. Differences and similarities between asteroids, comets and meteorites
Comets
9. What our ancestors thought of comets and where they came from
10. Where comets originate: the Oort Cloud
11. Predicting comet appearances in the sky
12. Edmund Halley and Halley’s comet
13. The meticulous tracking of comets by the Chinese
14. Sublimation
15. Comet composition and structure: dust tail, ion tail and nucleus
16. The Kuiper Belt
17. Trans-Neptunian objects
18. Jupiter-family comets
19. Comet naming conventions and discoveries
20. The International Astronomical Union
21. Comet Shoemaker and its crash into Jupiter
22. Evidence of comet impacts throughout the Solar System
23. Comets and the Sun
24. Comet speeds
25. Missions to comets
26. The Rosetta mission and the Philae comet lander
27. Periodic comets: long-term and short-term
Asteroids
28. Asteroid composition
29. Asteroid missions
30. The Asteroid Belt
31. The asteroid moons of Mars and Jupiter
32. Dwarf planets in the Asteroid Belt
33. Mining asteroids for metals and minerals
34. Asteroids with moons, tails and rings
35. Tracking potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and near-Earth objects (NEOs)
Meteors
36. Differences and similarities between meteors and meteorites
37. Meteors and the Earth
38. Meteorites and the Earth
39. Overview of known Earth-impacts
40. Meteor showers
41. Test questions
42. Cross-curricular activities
Who this course is for:
- Anyone who loves Astronomy
Instructor
- 4.4 Instructor Rating
- 352 Reviews
- 2,214 Students
- 14 Courses
Tony is the creator of the popular Home School Astronomy curriculum. He has a Master’s Degree in Education and has written astronomy curriculum for NASA and the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC where he helps run the planetarium.
He teaches at Camden County College and has presented astronomy material in hundreds of venues across the United States.