kuiper belt and oort cloud, isabel and nora
TRANSCRIPT
THE FAR REACHES OF THE UNIVERSE
By Isabel and Nora
PART 1: COMETS
Water Comets are partly made of ice When comets go near the sun, some of the ice
melts and the comet gets smaller This is how most comets die, they get smaller
and smaller
Tools for Discovery and Investigation Spaceguard is a program that tracks any big
objects in space like comets, asteroids or meteors that could hit us
The Hubble telescope was launched by NASA and takes pictures in space
It was originally inaccurate, but they sent people into space to fix it
Satellites and traveling probes can also help us discover things about the solar system
Scale Comets are about 5-10 kilometers wide Comet tails are usually 100,000 kilometers The larger the comet, the larger the tail Two recent Oort Cloud comets were Hyakutake
and Hale-Bopp Hyakutake was average in size and came 15
million kilometers close to earth Hale-Bopp was unusually big, but it didn’t
aproach closer than 1.32 AU* to earth Bright comets can be seen every 5-10 years
*Note: 1 astronomical unit is 149,598,000 kilometers
Comet Tails Dust tails shed comet materials from the nucleus Ion tails are made of ions, electrically charged
atoms, and always face away from the sun The solar wind helps cause the ion tails Solar radiation ionizes the material in comets Comets only have tails when they are near the
sun Ion tails always face away from the sunBlack=nucleusTan=coma Yellowish=head of comet Blue=dust
tailRed=ion tail
Head of comet
PART 2: THE OORT CLOUD
States of Matter, Materials and Densities
The Oort Cloud has a dense core 1/6 of the icy objects in the Oort cloud are in
the dense core A giant molecular is a cloud that is far more
massive than the sun. It is the birthplace of stars and solar systems. When encountered it can redistribute comets in The Oort Cloud
Tools For Discovery and Investigation The Oort cloud is named after Jan H. Oort
Gravity, Orbiting and Centripetal Forces Stars in The Milky Way affect The Oort Cloud’s
gravity The Oort Cloud can sometimes be the source of long
period comets Sometimes long period comets in The Oort Cloud
are pulled by planets gravity and turned into short period comets
Scale The total mass of all the comets in The Oort Cloud is
40 times that of earth**Note: Earth is 5.7 times 10 to the 24th power The Oort cloud is 3 light years long and 3 light years
away from the sun Comets are usually tens of millions of kilometers
apart within The Oort Cloud
Bibliography
Rosanna, H. (2011, February 3). The oort cloud. Retrieved from http://www.solarviews.com/eng/oort.htmRosanna, H. (2011, February 3). Comet introduction. Retrieved from http://www.solarviews.com/eng/oort.htmDavies, J. (2001). Beyond pluto. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.University of Washington. "Crashing Comets Not Likely The Cause Of Earth's Mass Extinctions." ScienceDaily 31 July 2009. 3 February 2011 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/07/090730141552.htm>.Harvey, S. (2011, February 4). Deep impact. Retrieved from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm
The Comet/Oort Cloud Movie