Space Web Search

Click on:  http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/our_solar_system/asteroids.html

1.   Asteroids are __________ bodies that are believed to be left over from the beginning of_____ __________ _____________ 4.6 billion years ago. They are _____________ objects with __________ or ________________ shapes up to several hundred km across, but ___________ are much smaller.

2.   More than ____________ asteroids lie in a belt between ____________ and ________________. These _____________ lie in a location in the solar system where there seems to be a _________ in the ____________ between the ______________. Scientists think that this __________ may be the ______________ of an early ________________, which ____________ _______ early in the solar system. Several ________________ of the largest _________________ in this belt have been given names.

3.   The chances of an asteroid _______________ with Earth are very ___________! But some do come ___________ to Earth, like _____________ (closest approach of 777,000 km).

4.   At the bottom of the web page about asteroids click on the link “asteroid images” take a look at these pictures.  Do they remind you of anything you have seen before?

Click on:  http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/comets.html

5.   Comets are lumps of _________ and _________ that periodically come into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its ___________ ____________.

6.   Some comets make _____________ trips.

7.   When comets get close enough to the __________, heat makes them start to _______________. Jets of _________ and _________ form long __________ that we can see from Earth. These tails can sometimes be _________________ _______ ____________ long.

8.   In 1985-1986, a spacecraft called __________ visited the _________ ____________ comet, ___________,

9.   ____________________ was one of the _____________ comets ever seen from Earth.

10.                     Now scientists have identified a class of comets known as __________ ______________ (though they originally were just called snowballs from space!)

11.                     At the bottom of the web page about comets click on the link “comet images” take a look at these pictures.

Click on:  http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html

12.                     The Sun is by far the ____________ object in the solar system. It contains more than _________% of the total mass of the Solar System (_____________ contains most of the rest).

13.                     The sun is an _______________________ star because there are many similar to it.  There sun is in the top ________ of stars according to mass. 

Click on: http://www.nineplanets.org/meteorites.html

14.                     A meteor is a ____________ _____________ of light in the sky (a "shooting star" or a "falling star") produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere. If you have a dark clear sky you will probably see a few per __________ on an _____________ night; during one of the annual ____________ _______________ you may see as many as 100/hour.

15.                     Very bright meteors are known as __________________.

16.                     ____________________ are bits of the ______________ ___________________ that have fallen to the Earth.

17.                     Though meteorites may appear to be just ______________ rocks, they are extremely important in that we can analyze them carefully in our labs.

18.                     Aside from the few kilos of _____________ _____________ brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions, meteorites are our only material ______________ of the universe ________________ the Earth.

When finished, you may check out the selections at the following link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/

or

select different sections from the bottom links you used to answer this worksheet.