GEOL 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Van Allen Radiation Belt, South Magnetic Pole, Kuiper Belt
Document Summary
The boundary of the heliosphere is 200 au from the sun: this is the outer reach of the solar wind. The kuiper belt is a diffuse band of icy objects: some are up to 1200 km across, comets originate here, neptune is the inner edge. All planetary orbits lie in the same plane (the ecliptic) Eight planets constitute the solar system: outer ice giant planets (neptune and uranus, gas giant planets (saturn and jupiter, terrestrial planets (mars, earth, venus, and mercury) Asteroid belt lies between jupiter and mars. 1 au = distance from sun to earth. Asteroids: small bodies of rock or metal orbiting the sun: planetesimals that were never part of a larger planet, fragmented larger planetesimals, most occur in a belt between jupiter and mars, range in size. Too small to be reshaped by gravity: asteroids can strike earth.
