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1 | | Distinguish between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. |
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2 | | Tell what happens to meteoroids with diameters of (a) 10 millionths of a meter, (b) 1 centimeter, (c) 1 meter, and (d) 10 meters beginning from the time they enter the Earth's atmosphere. |
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3 | | Explain why the meteors in a given shower appear to be diverging from a fixed point in the sky. |
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4 | | Why do meteor showers recur on the same date each year? |
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5 | | Why are carbonaceous chondrites especially important for the study of the early solar system? |
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6 | | What is the significance of the large crystals contained in iron meteorites? |
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7 | | What does the cosmic ray exposure age tell us about the history of a meteorite? |
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8 | | How do we know that the parent bodies of the meteorites were larger than about 100 km in diameter? |
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9 | | Ceres, the first asteroid to be discovered, lies between Mars and Jupiter. Why was Ceres unknown to ancient astronomers? |
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10 | | What is the relationship between asteroids and meteorites? |
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11 | | Describe what happens to the nucleus of a comet as it moves from 10 AU from the Sun to 0.5 AU from the Sun. |
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12 | | Where does the gas and the dust in the coma of a comet come from? |
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13 | | Why do the dust tail and the plasma tail of a comet point away from the Sun? |
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14 | | What evidence is there that the Sun is surrounded by a vast cloud of comets known as the Oort cloud? |
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15 | | What causes Oort cloud comets to enter the inner solar system and become visible as new comets? |
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16 | | Where do short-period comets come from? |
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17 | | What is the eventual fate of most short-period and long-period comets? |
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18 | | What is the relationship between comets and meteor showers? |
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19 | | What evidence do we have that comets are permanent solar system members rather than interlopers from other parts of the galaxy? |
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20 | | Suppose the Earth were struck by an asteroid 10 km in diameter. Describe the local and global consequences of the impact. |
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21 | | What evidence do we have that the extinction of species at the end of the Cretaceous era was associated with an asteroid or comet striking the Earth? |
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