AST-1A Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Asteroid Belt, Orbital Resonance, Solar Wind
Document Summary
Asteroids are virtually undetectable to the naked eye. First discovered 200 years ago: by their movement in comparison to stars. Wide ranges of shapes and sizes: ceres (largest), vesta. Small asteroids come in diverse shapes because their gravity is too weak. Most orbit the sun in the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. Orbital resonance occurs when two objects periodically line up with each other. Occurs when asteroids have an orbital period in a fraction of jupiter"s orbital period. Jupiter"s gravity prevented asteroids from accreting into a planet. Meteor: only the flash of light caused by a particle entering out atmosphere at high speed. Primitive: remnants from the birth of our solar system. We know the age of our solar system through radiometric dating of primitive. Processed: suggested that they are pieces of large asteroids that underwent meteorites differentiation. Provide detailed into about the larger asteroids which they came from.
