Astronomy Notes

Part 8: Comets, Meteors, Asteroids, and Origin

John P. Pratt

Comets

Swords in the Sky

Discovery of Comet Orbits

Long Period Comets from the Oort Cloud

Short Period Comets from the Kuiper Belt

Dirty Icebergs

Meteors

Annual Meteor Showers

Meteors are Tiny Pieces of Debris from Disintegrated Comets

Meteorites are meteors that hit the ground.

Asteroids

Asteroids are rocky moon-sized interplanetary bodies.

Discovery

Asteroids Outside the Belt

Origin of the Solar System

What Needs Explaining

Catastrophic Theories

Evolutionary Theories

The Current Theory