ASTR 150 Questions with Correct Answers |
Updated (100% Correct Answers)
Where are meteorites found on Earth? Answer: They fall uniformly
on earth but we don't find them uniformly because people look for
them in specific places like Antarctica, which is dry and stable. They
are easily visible because of the meteorites dark color against the
snow so most are found there, the rest from other dry deserts.
Where do most meteorites come from? Answer: The outer part of
the solar system!
What are meteorites made from? Answer: They come from the
parent body (asteroids) and are mostly rock (some have a little iron)
What are carbonaceous chondrites? Answer: A rare type of stony
meteorite that includes carbon and water. It has NOT gone under
significant heating because it has lots of volatiles. They are
PRIMITIVE because they've never been changed since they were put
together, meaning the parent body never differentiated.
Carbonaceous parent bodies size? Answer: They are smaller than
10km in diameter, has been small its whole life. We determine the
age of things by determining the age of objects that have never
been heated (reset). We get the age of our solar system by the age
of these primitive meteorites!
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what are ordinary chondrites? Answer: They have been heated and
lack volatile elements but haven't been heated enough to fully
differentiate. They are barely younger than the solar system so were
heated very briefly and early on.
Asteroid age Answer: They all cooled almost immediately and are
not geologically active, are all ancient and the same age (4.4Byrs)
except for carbonaceous chondrites.
For every 1 asteroid there are... Answer: 10 asteroids 1/3 its size
Asteroids are too small to... Answer: have atmospheres and
geological activity. most are potato shaped and crater covered.
At what age is an object in the solar system forced into a sphere?
Answer: 500km or larger. There's so much pressure they are forced
into a sphere by gravity.
Most round objects in the SS are.. Answer: planets, Ceres (largest
asteroid), or some satellites
what is the origin of the asteroid belt? Answer: Because there are
carbonaceous chrondrites that can't come from anything larger than
10km the belt was never one single world that broke apart. Jupiter
changes the orbits and velocities of asteroids in the belt, and high
velocity means accretion can't happen since objects will fragment.
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