Exam 12: Asteroids, Comets, and Dwarf Planets: Their Nature, Orbits, and Impacts

Process of Science: Why did astronomers identify Pluto as a planet from its discovery? What scientific evidence led to its reclassification?

In what ways is Pluto like other Kuiper-belt objects?

Why do models suggest that Uranus and Neptune formed elsewhere?

Suppose there were no solar wind.How would the appearance of a comet in our inner solar system be different?

Why do we sometimes observe asteroids at the distances of the gaps in the asteroid belt?

Suppose that large jovian planets had never formed in our solar system.Which of the following would most likely be true?

Viewed from Pluto,the Sun would appear more than a thousand times fainter than on Earth.

Which of the following objects are probably not located in the same region of the solar system in which they originally formed?

The total number of comets orbiting the Sun is estimated to be about

How are asteroid masses measured?

Which of the following statements best describes the size of the largest asteroid,Ceres?

What is Pluto's moon Charon thought to have in common with our own Moon?

All meteorites collected on Earth come from asteroids or comets.

The large gaps in the asteroid belt (often called Kirkwood gaps)are caused by

When you see the bright flash of a meteor,what are you actually seeing?

Process of Science: Explain how observations of asteroids,comets,and meteorites test our theory for the formation of the solar system in unique ways that are not possible through observations of the planets.

No spacecraft has ever visited an asteroid or comet.

Primitive meteorites can be distinguished from other meteorites and terrestrial rocks because they

What part of a comet points most directly away from the Sun?

Why won't Pluto collide with Neptune?