The Comet's Tale (key)
Task 2 |
Name:_________________________
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Comet Writing Activity
Tell what you know about comets. Write as much as you can about
what you think:
a. comets are
b. where they come from, and
c. what they are made of.
Note: Below
are only a few of the points that could form correct answers.
For more information, please consult the Comet’s Tale Teacher’s
Background resource page.
a.
– Comets are:
- like
a dirty snowball
- a
small (few km) chunk of frozen gasses (ices) mixed with dust
grains and rocks
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- traveling
very fast (comets near perihelion can reach speeds of thousands
of kilometers per minute)
- much
smaller than the size of the moon
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b.
– Comets come from:
- the
Kuiper Belt (short period comets)
- the
Oort Cloud (long period comets)
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- the
same beginning events and materials as planets when the early
solar nebula spun -- forming small objects called planetesimals,
about a kilometer in size
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c.
– Comets are made
of:
- frozen
gases (carbon dioxide)
- organic
substances (ammonia, formaldehyde, methane)
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