13: Comets and Asteroids - Debris of the Solar System

Question 1

a stony or metallic object orbiting the Sun that is smaller than a planet but that shows no evidence of an atmosphere or of other types of activity associated with comets

Answer 1

asteroid

Question 2

the region of the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in which most asteroids are located - the main one extends from 2.2 to 3.3 AU from the Sun

Answer 2

asteroid belt

Question 3

a small body of icy and dusty matter that revolves about the Sun - when one comes near the Sun, some of its material vaporizes, forming a large head of tenuous gas and often a tail

Answer 3

comet

Question 4

a region of space beyond Neptune that is dynamically stable (like the asteroid belt) - the source region for most short-period comets

Answer 4

Kuiper belt

Question 5

an Earth-approaching asteroid, one whose orbit could bring it on a collision course with our planet

Answer 5

near-Earth asteroid (NEA)

Question 6

a comet or asteroid whose path intersects the orbit of Earth

Answer 6

near-Earth object (NEO)

Question 7

the solid chunk of ice and dust in the head of a comet

Answer 7

nucleus (of a comet)

Question 8

the large spherical region around the Sun from which most “new” comets come - a reservoir of objects with aphelia at about 50,000 AU

Answer 8

Oort cloud