Claire's+Asteroid+Belt

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] **Vocab:** Asteroid Belt- a region between the inner and outer planets where thousands of asteroids are found orbiting around the sun. Asteroid- chunks of rock and metal that orbit the sun
 * Sites: **

Facts:

More than 7000 asteroids have been discovered. There are hundreds of thousands more that are too small to be seen. Asteroids are barely visable with the naked eye, but they can still be seen with small telescopes, or binoculars. Famous Asteroids:


 * Ida- photographed- only asteroids that have been studied closely
 * Gaspra- photographed- only asteroids that have been studied closely [[image:http://www.solstation.com/stars/hiresc.gif width="118" height="185" align="right"]]
 * Mathilde- recently the near mission flew by an asteroid named Mathilde in June 1997-
 * Vesta- 3rd largest
 * Ceres- The largest asteroid- is 914km across- is 25% of the weight of all of the asteroids combined (Dwarf Planet)
 * Pallas- 2nd largest
 * Hygiea- 4th largest[[image:http://www.solstation.com/stars/ast1belt.gif align="left" link="http://www.solstation.com/stars/ast2belt.gif"]]

Questions Answered:
 * 1) The total mass of the asteroids are less than that of the moon. The mass of the moon is 10 24kg
 * 2) Most Asteriods are about 100km across. We only know of some that are 200km.
 * 3) The distance between the sun and the asteroid belt is 150 million kl. Measured in AU.
 * 4) The regular temp of the surface of an asteroid is 100ce.
 * 5) The Asteriod belt lies between Mars and Jupiter, seperating the inner and outer planets. [[image:http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/asteroid_belt.gif width="235" height="247" align="right"]]

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Asteroids are made of different things depending on the planet they broke off of. Asteroids closer to the sun are normaly carbonaceus asteroids. Asteriods farther out, away from the sun are normaly slicate.
 * Class of Asteroids:**
 * C class:** Found in the Earth's outer belt and are darker and more carbonaceous than the ones found in the S class.


 * D class:** Also known as //Trojan// asteroids of Jupiter and are dark and carbonaceous in composition.


 * S class:** Found in the Earth's inner belt, closer to Mars and are composed of mostly stone and iron.

The first asteroid to be discovered was Ceres, by accident. It was discovered January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi. He first thought it was a comet, and then thought it was a planet. When it was understood that it was too small Sir William Herschel (the astromoner who discovered Uranus) made up the word "asteroid" to describe it, from the Latin word //aster// meaning star and the //-oid// meaning rock or planet.
 * V class:** A far-out group of asteroids that follow a path between the orbits of [|Jupiter] and [|Uranus], and are made of igneous, eruptive materials.

In 2006 two astronomers discovered that the near circular orbits of some icy asteroids in the outer reaches of the Main Asteroid Belt suggest that they are part of a population of "main belt comets." Near-Earth Objects are asteroids and that have been nudged by the gravitational pull of nearby planets into orbits that cause them to enter the Earth's vicinity. Main belt asteroids orbit between 2-3.3 AU from the sun. So it's between 1 and 4.3 AU, depending on where Earth and the asteroid in question are relative to each other in their orbits. Asteroids are able to be found outside of the asteroid belt.Asteroids are visable from earth.The asteroid belt has more than 40,000 asteroids that are half a mile long. The elliptical orbit of the asteroid belt takes three through six years.

The Asteroid belt is 250 million miles from the sun. Asteroids can be visible from Earth using a telescope. They look like little specks of light. Many scientists believe that an asteroid collided with Earth about 65 million years ago, triggering environmental changes that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs

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