GEOS2111 Lecture 24: Week 12 Lecture 2 Notes
2 Jul 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Week 12 lecture 2 extra-terrestrial space hazards. Consider 2 principal space hazards: asteroids and comets (meteorites, solar flares and cmes (space weather storms) Think about what we can do to mitigate risks. Asteroids = chunks of rocks that didn"t coalesce during the formation of the solar system. Most asteroids = found in the asteroid belt: asteroid belt exists between the orbits of mars and. Meteorites are simply small asteroids (small chunks of rocks in space: on average, meteorites = 1m in diameter. Small chunk of rock in space, smaller than asteroids. Objects that form light streak in sky as they pass through earth"s atmosphere. Small meteors burn up in upper atmosphere (< 25m) Visible from earth (no collision, may burn up in the atmosphere) Large meteors become incandescent on outside (fireball) but cores remain cool. Same objects as meteors once they collide with earth. Meteor showers = when earth passes through a swarm of meteors.
