ASTR 1101 Chapter : Apr20 Comets
Document Summary
What is a comet made of: dust tail: small dust particles (varying rocky composition), ion tail: gases (water, co, co2, methane, Ammonia: meteor showers: rocks strewn behind a comet as its ices melt, spectra of nucleus: ices of water, co2, methane, Ammonia: stardust sample return mission: gases as above plus small rocky dust particles! Dirty snowballs! (mostly ices mixed with dust and some rocks)! Oort cloud: kepler(cid:3)s law: comets spend most of the time far from the sun, long-period comet orbits: farthest part of orbit is 1000-100,000au from sun! ==> huge spherical cloud of dormant comets swarming around the solar. Kuiper belt: (cid:2)short(cid:3)-period comets: farthest distance from sun 50-200 au, orbits: roughly in same plane as the planets orbits! ==> flattened swarm of dormant comets in a disk outside neptune(cid:3)s orbit! Kbo55637 s e d u t i n g a. 1. 0 s e d u t i n g a.
