AST101H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Comet Dust, Meteor Crater, Meteorite Fall

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

These are the scraps left over from the formation of our solar system. Asteroids star like (but only from telescope) Meteorites are pieces of rock that have fallen to the ground from space (most are pieces of asteroids that orbited the sun before they fell on earth) An asteroids orbit can be calculated from the law of gravity. The largest is ceres (under 1000 km in diameter) Some are large enough to be considered moons if they orbited a planet. Asteroids don"t add up much in total mass; wed make an object much smaller than our moon. Shapes depend on the gravity; the larger the asteroid the more the gravity can mold its solid rock into a sphere: only ceres is large enough for this (why it"s a dwarf planet) Weak gravity due to smaller sizes is why some are potato shapes. Asteroids have also been battered by impacts because they have craters.