Comets
Comets are fascinating celestial wanderers known for their glowing comas and spectacular tails illuminating the night sky.
Structure of a Comet
- Nucleus: The solid, icy core made of rock, dust, and frozen gases.
- Coma: A glowing cloud of gas and dust that forms around the nucleus when the Comet gets close to the Sun.
- Tails: Two distinct tails—ion tail (gas) and dust tail.
- Solar radiation and wind push the gas and dust away from the nucleus, creating the tails.
- The ion tail always points directly away from the Sun, while the dust tail forms a curved shape.
Asteroids & Meteoroids
Asteroids and meteoroids are space rocks on the move.
Asteroids are large, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. They are primarily found in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- It can range in size from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers.
- Some asteroids cross Earth’s orbit and are called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
Meteoroids are smaller fragments of rock or metal that break off from asteroids or comets.
- When they enter Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up, creating meteors or “shooting stars.”
- If they reach the Earth’s surface, they are called meteorites.
Black Holes
A black hole is a region in space with gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.
- It is formed when a massive star collapses at the end of its life, creating a dense core.
- The boundary around a black hole is called the event horizon—once something crosses it, it can’t return.
Type of Black Holes
- Stellar black holes form when massive stars die and are found throughout the Milky Way galaxy.
- Supermassive black holes, millions of times larger than our Sun, are found at the center of most galaxies, including ours.
- Intermediate black holes might exist between star clusters, though they are harder to detect.
Fun Facts
Here are some interesting facts about bodies in the Solar System:
- A comet’s tail can stretch millions of kilometers across space, making it one of the longest structures in the solar system!
- More than 150 asteroids are known to have moons.
- Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth every 76 years!
- A meteor travels so fast that it can cross the sky in less than a second.
Review
Let’s quickly recap what we learned about bodies in our Solar System:
- What are comets mostly made of? Ice
- What are the two types of space rocks that are always on the move? Asteroids & Meteoroids
- What is a region in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape it? Black Hole
- What happens to meteoroids when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere? Burn up creating “Shooting Stars”
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