Space Debris Info
This is just a short article where I am going to share some of the information I have learned about space debris and how it relates to us. I have always found anything having to do with space incredibly interesting, and therefore I have always been a little curious about asteroids, comets and so-on.
First of all what makes a comet different from
an asteroid, from a meteorite, from a meteor? And why so many names?
I have always guessed that it was someone's job to sit around and
come up with a different name for every little difference in
circumstances. Well, for the most part it seems like that is pretty
much right. So here are the text book definitions and a short
description of what they are.
A
Comet:
A celestial body, observed only in that part of its orbit that is
relatively close to the sun, having a head consisting of a solid
nucleus surrounded by a nebulous coma up to 2.4 million kilometers
(1.5 million miles) in diameter and an elongated curved vapor tail
arising from the coma when sufficiently close to the sun. Comets are
thought to consist chiefly of ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, and
water. It is thought that most of the comets circling our solar
system are leftovers from the the solar system's formation.
Therefore studying a comet is like looking back in time to the
beginning of the solar system we call home or Sol. -(the name of our
solar system)
An Asteroid: From the
word Astronomy. Any of numerous small celestial bodies that revolve
around the sun, with orbits lying chiefly between Mars and Jupiter
and characteristic diameters between a few and several hundred
kilometers. Also called minor planet, planetoid. Most asteroid
orbits are more elliptical and inclined to the plane of the ecliptic
than the orbits of major planets. There are over 73,000 cataloged
asteroids.
A Meteorite A
stony or metallic mass of matter that has fallen to the earth's
surface from outer space. A naturally occurring solid object
from interplanetary space that survives impact on a planetary
surface. While in space, the object is called a meteoroid.
A Meteoroid is
a small sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar
system. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's (or
another body's) atmosphere is a
A Meteor is the visible event
that occurs when a meteoroid or asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere
and becomes brightly visible. For bodies with a size scale larger
than the atmospheric mean free path (10 cm to several metres) the
visibility is due to the heat produced by the ram pressure.
(Information from -
Answers.com)
It is estimated that 37,000 to 78,000 tones of material coming from space falls to the earth each year. Most of this mass would come from dust-sized particles that don't hit the surface of the earth for a long time. The particles gather in the upper atmosphere and eventually come to the earth in precipitation. Yes thats right, better think twice next time you catch that snow flake on your tongue.
As of 4 June, 2007, 376,537 asteroids and minor planets have been registered, with a discovery rate of approximately 5,000 new bodies per month. It is estimated that there are between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids with a diameter of greater than 1 km in the solar system, and many billions with a diameter greater than 10 m.
Sources