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Missions to explore comets Isaac Campbell

Missions to explore comets Isaac Campbell. What are comets. Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs because they are a mixture of ices and dust that never formed a planet. They are as old as the universe. Comets are invisible except when near the Sun.

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Missions to explore comets Isaac Campbell

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  1. Missions to explore cometsIsaac Campbell

  2. What are comets • Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs because they are a mixture of ices and dust that never formed a planet. • They are as old as the universe. • Comets are invisible except when near the Sun. • When a comet passes by the Sun its nucleus heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets.

  3. Parts of a comet • nucleus: central portion head of the ocmet • coma: similar to a planets atmosphere, made up of heated gases and dust • hydrogen cloud: generated by the nucleus; • dust tail: points back along the path of the comet; contains dust particles • ion tail: points directly away from the sun

  4. Famous Comets • Hale Bopp-Hale Bopp was disvovered in 1995 • Shoemaker Levy 9-This comet came in contact with Jupiter and shattered in 1992. It hit Jupiter’s surface in 1994. • Hyakutake- Yuji Hyakutakediscovered in Japan in 1996 with a pair of binoculars. • Halley-Comet Halley is the most famous comet in history. It was named after Edmund Halley, who first predicted its return in 1759.

  5. Where are they located in the universe? The kuiper belt The oort cloud • Disc-shaped region in the solar system just outside of Neptune. • Much larger and more distant than the Kuiper Belt. • The Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud contain the majority of the comets in the universe.

  6. RosettaMission to land on a Comet • First mission where a probe lands on a comet • Planned to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko • First time a deep-space mission relies on solar energy rather than nuclear energy • Funded by the ESA(European Space Agency) • Was previously planned to land on comet 46 P/Wirtanen but the rockets failed for the mission • Mistaken for an asteroid in 2007.

  7. Timeline of mission • Mission Dates • 2 Mar 2004 Launch (07:17 UT) • 4 Mar 2005 1st Earth Gravity Assist • 25 Feb 2007 Mars Gravity Assist • 13 Nov 2007 2nd Earth Gravity Assist • 5 Sep 2008 Asteroid Steins Flyby • 13 Nov 2009 3rd Earth Gravity Assist • 10 Jul 2010 Asteroid Lutetia Flyby • 22 May 2014 Comet Orbit Insertion • Nov 2014 - Dec 2015 Comet Escort Mission • 10 Nov 2014 Comet Landing

  8. Objectives of Rosetta Mission • To help understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System • Look for compounds and elements essential for life including carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. • Analyze isotopic abundances in comets to determine if water on Earth came from comets in space

  9. Other missions to study comets • Contour-USA(NASA) • Deep Impact-USA(NASA) • Deep Space 1-USA(NASA) • Galileo-USA(NASA) • Giotto-ESA • ISEE-3/Ice-USA(NASA) • Sakigake-Japan • SOHO-NASA/ESA • Stardust-USA(NASA) • Suisei-Japan • Ulysses-NASA/ESA • Vega 1&2-USSR

  10. Sources • http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/educ/04_ExploringComets_SolarSystem.pdf • http://www.windows2universe.org/comets/comet_missions.html • http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Rosetta/SEMHBK2PGQD_0.html • http://www.skymania.com/wp/2007/11/deadly-asteroid-is-spaceprobe.html/ • http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Comets/Rosetta.html • http://nineplanets.org/comets.html

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