Asteroids and Comets Worksheet.

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Apr 3, 2024

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Asteroids and Comets Worksheet These lab activities have evolved over many years of use in Clemson University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy general astronomy laboratory. Contributors include, in chronological order, Tom Collins, Mark Leising, Neil Miller, Peter Milne, Grant Williams, Donna Mullenax, Jessica Crist, Keith Davis, Amber Porter, Steven Bromley, and David Connick. Please direct all questions, complaints, and corrections to David Connick (dconnic@clemson.edu) who is responsible for all errors and omissions. Student Name: _________________________________________________Section: _______ Asteroids Each of the yellow dots is an asteroid. You should see that they are primarily grouped in one area. Let time play forward a little to get a feel for the motions and then answer the questions. 1) Where do the majority of the asteroids (main belt asteroids) appear to reside? Describe their location based on the orbits of the planets. Most of the asteroids are located between Mars and Jupiter. 2) Click on and view the orbits of some of the main belt asteroids. Do the main belt asteroids mostly have circular or highly eccentric orbits? Give eccentricity value to support your answer. Many of the main belt asteroids' eccentricity is much closer to zero, so a lot of them are very circular in orbit. You may need to adjust your viewpoint by clicking on the screen and dragging to change your angle of view for the next question. 3) Compared to the planets, are the main belt asteroids mostly in the plane of the ecliptic? Explain. Compared to the planets, most of the planets are tilted in upwards kind of but are also still in the same plane. Return to a top down view of the solar system. Play time forward and watch the asteroids that are out by Jupiter’s orbit. These asteroids are called the Trojans. 4) It may help to click on one of the asteroids near Jupiter’s orbit and watch it for one full orbit of Jupiter. How does the asteroid’s orbit compare to Jupiter’s? You should change the viewpoint to view the tilt of the asteroids orbit as well as the comparing the top down view. The orbit is very similar to Jupiter in the way it travels and it between Jupiter and Mars for a period of time but returns to the outside of Jupiter for most of its orbit. 5) Let’s use the scientific process to determine whether main belt asteroids often collide with one another. Begin by writing down your hypothesis. (Do you think there are a lot of collisions and why do you think that.) I think that there are a lot of collisions because there are so many asteroids in a dense place. I predict that throughout a full asteroid orbit many of the asteroids will collide.

6) Next, we will use a calculation to test your hypothesis. Recall that the main asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. So, the first step of the calculation is to determine the area of the asteroid belt by subtracting the area of Mars’ orbit from Jupiters’ orbit. This will require finding the area of a circle. A= (pi)*r 2 Show your work below. Give your final answer in kilometers squared (km 2 ) using the conversion that 1 AU = 1.5x10 8 km. 5.17(1.5 x 10^8) = 7,755,000,000 (7,755,000,000)^2 = 1.889 x 10^18 km 1.4(1.5 x 10^8) = 210,000,000 ` (210,000,000)^2 = 1.385 x 10^17 km (1.889 x 10^18 km) – (1.385 x 10^17 km) = 1.7508 x 10^18 km 7) Now that you know the area of the asteroid belt, let’s determine how many asteroids could fit in that space by dividing the area of the asteroid belt by the area of one asteroid. Assume that the typical asteroid has a radius of 0.5 km. Show your work below. 1.7508 x 10^18 / 3.14 x 0.5^2 = 2.2 x 10^18 8) There are approximately 750,000 asteroids with a diameter of 1 km (radius of 0.5 km) in the main asteroid belt. Using your calculation above, discuss whether or not this information supports your hypothesis. The number of asteroid that can fit in the main asteroid belt (2.2 x 10^18) is much lower compared to the area that it fills up. My hypothesis would be wrong because there is enough area for the asteroids to travel and not collide with each other. Comets - read instructions to set up Starry Night to answer these questions 9) What is the perihelion date of comet 1P/Halley? Sunday August 21 st , 1910 10) What is the perihelion distance of this comet? How does this compare to Earth’s distance from the Sun? 0.59 Au away from the sun and this is half of what the Earth is at with 0.98 Au 11) At what point in 1P/Halley orbit did the tail of the comet appear largest? At perihelion is when the comet appears largest. 12) In what direction does the comet tail point? Does it change direction as the comet orbits the Sun? The comet is always pointing away from the sun and it does not change direction in its orbit.

13) What do you notice about the direction of 1P/Halley orbit compared to that of the planets from the top down view of the solar system? Explain The orbit is in retrograde and is more of an oval shape. It also passes through the orbit of 4 other planets. 14) The tail of Halley’s Comet came close enough to Earth that it hit the Earth’s atmosphere (or the other way around). When did Earth pass through the tail (hint: find the date in 1910). August 15 th , 1910 15) When does the comet travel fastest? Give terminology and dates Perihelion on August 21 st , 1910 16) When does the comet travel slowest? Give terminology and dates Aphelion 17) What physical law describes when the comet will move faster or slower? Kepler’s Second Law 18) After answering the above questions, change the time step to 1-3 months. When are the next two appearances of Halley’s comet? (Be careful not to miss the perihelion of the comet.Adjust the time step back to 1 day as the comet gets closer to perihelion). Date 1: from first question in comets above. Give date from question 9 Date 2: Feb. 15 th , 1986 Date 3: Sep. 3 rd , 2061 19) What is the average gap in time between the three occurrences of Halley’s comet that you saw today? About 75 years 20) Do you think you will see Halley’s comet in your lifetime? Hopefully I will be around 60 years old 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -return to the instructions to set up Starry night for these questions The image below shows the comet up-close from a distance of 238 kilometers (Image Credit: 2014 ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team).

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21) Describe the comet nucleus, in your own words. Consider its shape, relative bright and dark areas, and surface features. The comet nucleus is shaped like a wein litcher in my stomach. It is not circular and reflective, but it is beautiful. It is darkest on the bottom and is brightest on top. 22) Philae landed on the comet surface on November 12, 2014 and sent an “I’m OK!” message to Rosetta to be relayed to Earth. How long did it take Earth to receive Rosetta’s signal if the signal traveled at the speed of light which is 3 x 10 5 km/s. You must first determine the distance between Earth and the comet. Use the measurement tool to find the distance in AU and use 1AU = 1.5x10 8 km. Give your answer in minutes. 2.78(1.5 x 10^8) = 417,000,000 ( 417,000,000/300,000) = 1390 km (1390/60) = 23.17 mins

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