Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids
In this unit, students will learn about the difference between meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids, what they are composed of, their origins, how asteroids and comets are related to meteor showers, and why this left-over space debris is important to understanding the formation of our solar system.
Day 1: Introduction to the comets, meteors and asteroids
Using the provided worksheet watch the following videos and answer the questions. There will be a brief lecture at the end of class about signs of impact crater.
Link #1- youtube video
Link #2: information about meteor crater
Link #3- types of meteorites and how to recognize them
Link #4: 10 big astro events in your lifetime (including asteroids and meteors
Link #5: What made the dinosaurs go extinct?
Link #6- no questions but a cool video on what dinosaurs would have seen when the asteroid impacted.
Link #1- youtube video
Link #2: information about meteor crater
Link #3- types of meteorites and how to recognize them
Link #4: 10 big astro events in your lifetime (including asteroids and meteors
Link #5: What made the dinosaurs go extinct?
Link #6- no questions but a cool video on what dinosaurs would have seen when the asteroid impacted.
Video Links
Meteor 1: Dash cam of a meteor in Canada
Meteor 2: Dash cam of a meteor in Iowa
Meteor 3: Police pulled over a car, meteor falls in background
Meteor 4: Security camera shows brightness of a fireball
Meteor 5: Filmed in South Africa over cities lights
Meteor 6: Meteor caught in Australia
Meteor 7: Meteor over Netherlands, still photos, suggest muting video and fast-forward through photos
Meteor 8: Security camera, notice how bright the sky becomes, you can see the mountains in the background
Meteor 9: Utah Meteor
Meteor 10: Utah Meteor-parking lot
Meteor 11: Meteor the size of VW bug skips off the atmosphere, old footage, but good, would have been a bad day if impacted
Burning Up: Video show "something" burning up - don't believe it
Russian Meteor: 10 min video of several views of meteor explosion/burning up.
Asteroid Hitting Earth: If a large asteroid impacted Earth
Armageddon Full Movie
Mega Disaster: Could an Asteroid Impact Event Cause Mass Extinction on Earth?
Meteor 2: Dash cam of a meteor in Iowa
Meteor 3: Police pulled over a car, meteor falls in background
Meteor 4: Security camera shows brightness of a fireball
Meteor 5: Filmed in South Africa over cities lights
Meteor 6: Meteor caught in Australia
Meteor 7: Meteor over Netherlands, still photos, suggest muting video and fast-forward through photos
Meteor 8: Security camera, notice how bright the sky becomes, you can see the mountains in the background
Meteor 9: Utah Meteor
Meteor 10: Utah Meteor-parking lot
Meteor 11: Meteor the size of VW bug skips off the atmosphere, old footage, but good, would have been a bad day if impacted
Burning Up: Video show "something" burning up - don't believe it
Russian Meteor: 10 min video of several views of meteor explosion/burning up.
Asteroid Hitting Earth: If a large asteroid impacted Earth
Armageddon Full Movie
Mega Disaster: Could an Asteroid Impact Event Cause Mass Extinction on Earth?
Assignments, Labs, Homework and Study Guide to Download:
Available in word doc and in PDF
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Micrometeorite- found in parking lot, perfect circle just above/right of arrow.
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Link to crater on the Earth simulation...Click Here
Link to Comet, Meteors, and Asteroids Virtual Lab:
Activity #1, Activity #2, Activity #3, Activity #4.
Link to Comet Homework (Page 3)...Click Here
Link to Comet Homework (Page 1 & 2) Here
Link to Asteroid Homework (Page 4) Here
Interesting Links:
Picture of a Micrometeor...thanks to Chris Pritchard (class 2013)
Look to the middle of the picture, it is a shiny, perfectly round object in the middle. This was collected around the parking lot of TuHS parking lot using a magnet and microscope.