The Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt

Other Solar System Objects

by Mario Miro

​Dwarf Planets

• i​s a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun

• ​Pluto, Ceres, makemake and Eris

• ​found in a region call Kuiper belt found beyond Neptune

• ​Question, is Pluto a planet or a dwarf planet?

• How did we discover objects so far into space?

• What Characteristics may differentiate these 2 space objects?

​Pluto

• ​Was the 9th planet discovered back in 1930

• ​It's not a Terrestrial planet or a gas planet, it's made of rock and ice

• ​has elliptical orbit, different from the more circular orbit

​Ceres

• ​Thought at one time to be a planet

  Largest of the objects in the Asteroid belt

  Currently is part of the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter

• ​has very large elliptical orbit, causing it to be classified as an asteroid

Multiple Choice

Pluto is a dwarf planet that is part of the...

• Oort cloud

• Kuiper Belt

• Moon system of Neptune

• Asteroid Belt

Multiple Choice

Ceres is located between

• Mars and Jupiter

• Mars and Saturn

• Mercury and Jupiter

• Mercury and Saturn

​Asteroids

• ​Rocky bodies that orbit the Sun

• ​Different sizes, shapes and irregular surfaces

• ​Hundreds of thousands of them, they collide and breakup into small objects

​Meteoroid

• ​Small pieces of Asteroids

• ​May pass within earth's atmosphere and get compresed and heated we call this a Meteor

• ​If a Meteoroid hits the Earth's surface we call it a Meteorite, did not burd up in Earth's atmosphere

​Kuiper Belt

• Very Similar to the Asteroid belt containing rocks and ice

• ​Formed by the remains of the formation of the solar system

• ​Many of these solar system bodies may have formed closer to the sun, but sent out in deep space by the larger planets

​Comets

• Icy bodies that travel in an eccentric orbit around the Sun

• ​Orbits can be so long that they travel within the Oort Cloud, area in space beyond our solar system

• When comets come close to the sun it begins to evaporate and form gases, that form a head and tail of a comet. Tails always point away from the sun, Why?

Multiple Choice

The “ion tail”, produced by the solar wind acting on ionized gas, points _____

• towards the sun
• away from the Sun
• behind the comet in its orbit
• ahead of the comet in its orbit

Multiple Select

Select three known Kuiper Belt Objects?

• Makemake

• Pluto

• Neptune

• Eris

• Titan