Astronomy Exam #2 (4. Small bodies of the solar system)

Asteroid belt

located between mars and jupiter

contains many rocky and metallic bodies

most asteroids orbit near the plane of the planetary orbits

Trojan Asteroids

share an orbit with a planet and occupy stable regions ahead of or behind it

jupiter has a large population of trojan asteroids

their orbits generally lie near the plane of the planetary orbits

Kuiper Belt

located beyond neptune

contains many icy objects, including pluto and other dwarf planets

most kuiper belt objects orbit relatively close to the plane of the planets

Oort cloud

a distant, roughly spherical reservoir of icy objects surrounding the solar system

objects can have a wide range of orbital inclinations

long-period comets are though to originate from this distant reservoir

Comets

contain ice, dust, and rocky material

as a comet approaches the sun, ice vaporizes and releases gas and dust, forming a coma and sometimes tails

a comet’s tail generally points away from the sun because of sunlight and the solar wind

density

mass per unit volume

Density = p

p = m/V

Volume for a spherical asteroid

V = (4/3)pi r³

km to meters

1km = 1000m

meters to centimeters

1m = 100 cm

kilograms to grams

1kg = 1000 g

kilometers cubed to centimeters cubed

1 km³ = 10¹⁵cm³