Comets are among the most beautiful astronomical objects in our sky, but brought fear to our ancestors when they appeared. Find out what comets are and where they come from in this lesson. What’s the difference between a comet an asteroid and a meteorite? Could one of these objects really hit the Earth? You will know after streaking through the solar system with this lesson.

This Course includes the following great BONUS LESSONS:

• What on Earth is Astronomy?

• Mini-Lesson: Eclipses

• Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers

• Mini-Lesson: Aurora

Comets, Asteroids and Meteorites

1. Objective

2. Warm-up activity

3. General overview of large object impacts in the Solar System

4. Why some objects are impacted more than others

5. Atmosphere

6. Erosion

7. Impacts on Earth and the Moon

8. Differences and similarities between asteroids, comets and meteorites

Comets

9. What our ancestors thought of comets and where they came from

10. Where comets originate: the Oort Cloud

11. Predicting comet appearances in the sky

12. Edmund Halley and Halley’s comet

13. The meticulous tracking of comets by the Chinese

14. Sublimation

15. Comet composition and structure: dust tail, ion tail and nucleus

16. The Kuiper Belt

17. Trans-Neptunian objects

18. Jupiter-family comets

19. Comet naming conventions and discoveries

20. The International Astronomical Union

21. Comet Shoemaker and its crash into Jupiter

22. Evidence of comet impacts throughout the Solar System

23. Comets and the Sun

24. Comet speeds

25. Missions to comets

26. The Rosetta mission and the Philae comet lander

27. Periodic comets: long-term and short-term

Asteroids

28. Asteroid composition

29. Asteroid missions

30. The Asteroid Belt

31. The asteroid moons of Mars and Jupiter

32. Dwarf planets in the Asteroid Belt

33. Mining asteroids for metals and minerals

34. Asteroids with moons, tails and rings

35. Tracking potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and near-Earth objects (NEOs)

Meteors

36. Differences and similarities between meteors and meteorites

37. Meteors and the Earth

38. Meteorites and the Earth

39. Overview of known Earth-impacts

40. Meteor showers

41. Test questions

42. Cross-curricular activities