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| 1 | |
Distinguish between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. |
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| 2 | |
Tell what happens to meteoroids with diameters of (a) 10 millionths of a meter, (b) 1 centimeter, (c) 1 meter, and (d) 10 meters beginning from the time they enter the Earth's atmosphere. |
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| 3 | |
Explain why the meteors in a given shower appear to be diverging from a fixed point in the sky. |
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| 4 | |
Why do meteor showers recur on the same date each year? |
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| 5 | |
Why are carbonaceous chondrites especially important for the study of the early solar system? |
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| 6 | |
What is the significance of the large crystals contained in iron meteorites? |
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| 7 | |
What does the cosmic ray exposure age tell us about the history of a meteorite? |
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| 8 | |
How do we know that the parent bodies of the meteorites were larger than about 100 km in diameter? |
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| 9 | |
Ceres, the first asteroid to be discovered, lies between Mars and Jupiter. Why was Ceres unknown to ancient astronomers? |
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| 10 | |
What is the relationship between asteroids and meteorites? |
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| 11 | |
Describe what happens to the nucleus of a comet as it moves from 10 AU from the Sun to 0.5 AU from the Sun. |
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| 12 | |
Where does the gas and the dust in the coma of a comet come from? |
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| 13 | |
Why do the dust tail and the plasma tail of a comet point away from the Sun? |
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| 14 | |
What evidence is there that the Sun is surrounded by a vast cloud of comets known as the Oort cloud? |
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| 15 | |
What causes Oort cloud comets to enter the inner solar system and become visible as new comets? |
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| 16 | |
Where do short-period comets come from? |
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| 17 | |
What is the eventual fate of most short-period and long-period comets? |
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| 18 | |
What is the relationship between comets and meteor showers? |
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| 19 | |
What evidence do we have that comets are permanent solar system members rather than interlopers from other parts of the galaxy? |
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| 20 | |
Suppose the Earth were struck by an asteroid 10 km in diameter. Describe the local and global consequences of the impact. |
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| 21 | |
What evidence do we have that the extinction of species at the end of the Cretaceous era was associated with an asteroid or comet striking the Earth? |
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