AST 2002 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Airglow, Extinction Event, Acid Rain
Document Summary
Asteroids are rocky leftover planetismals from the era of planet formation. Meteorites are small pieces of asteroids that orbited the sun for billions of years before falling to earth. Large enough for its own gravity to make it round. Qualifies as a dwarf planet: second largest is vesta. Where is there an asteroid belt: the vast majority of asteroids orbit the sun in the belt between mars and jupier, the planetismals that formed between mars and jupiter were influenced by orbital resonances with jupiter. Occurs whenever two objects periodically line up with each other. When an asteroid has an orbital period that is a simple fraction of jupiter"s or(cid:271)ital period. Experiences repeated tugs from jupiter that nudge it out of orbit: gaps are called kirkwood gaps, orbital resonances with jupiter explain why no planet formed between mars and. Kicked them out of the region: asteroid belt is still undergoing slow change, a major collision occurs every 100,000 years.
