Which of the following statements about comets and asteroids is true?
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Comets are balls of ice and dust
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What do asteroids and comets have in common?
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most are unchanged since their formation in the solar nebula
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How do asteroids differ from comets?
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Asteroids and comets are both made of rocky and icy material, but asteroids are larger in size than comets.
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A rocky leftover planetesimal orbiting the Sun is
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an asteroid.
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An icy leftover planetesimal orbiting the Sun is
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a comet.
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Why do asteroids and comets differ in composition?
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Asteroids formed inside the frost line, while comets formed outside.
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Why aren't small asteroids spherical in shape?
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The strength of gravity on small asteroids is less than the strength of the rock.
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What do astronomers mean when they refer to "gaps" in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?
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Asteroids seem to avoid certain orbits around the Sun, creating "gaps" in the orbits that asteroids can have.
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What is a meteorite?
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a fragment of an asteroid from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface
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What characteristic distinguishes a meteorite from a terrestrial rock?
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All of the above.
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Primitive meteorites can be distinguished from other meteorites and terrestrial rocks because they
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contain a noticeable fraction of pure metallic flakes.
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Meteorites can come from
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all of the above
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What part of a comet always points most directly away from the Sun?
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the plasma tail
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Where are the Trojan asteroids located?
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along Jupiter's orbit
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Why does the plasma tail of a comet always point away from the Sun?
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The solar wind blows the plasma ions directly away from the Sun.
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Where did comets that are now in the Oort cloud originally form?
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near the jovian planets
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According to the nebular theory, how did the Kuiper belt form?
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It is made of planetesimals that formed beyond Neptune's orbit and never accreted to form a planet.
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Rather than being a planet, Pluto is really just a large member of
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It formed outside of the frost line in the solar nebula.
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Processed meteorites with high metal content probably are
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chunks that come from a shattered asteroid's core
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What is Eris
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the largest known Kuiper Belt object
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A typical shooting star in a meteor shower is caused by a ________ entering Earth's atmosphere.
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pea-size particle from a comet
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What is the name of the largest known Kuiper Belt Object?
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Eris
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Which of the following statements about comets best describes the light we can observe?
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A comet emits infrared light and reflects visible light.
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During the time that a comet passes through the inner solar system, the comet can appear quite bright because
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sunlight reflects off the comet's tail and coma.
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Pluto is most like a
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comet.
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A rock found on Earth that crashed down from space is called ________.
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a meteorite
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The asteroid belt is located ________.
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between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
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Which direction do a comet's dust and plasma tails point?
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Generally away from the Sun
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When a comet passes near the Sun, part of it takes on the appearance of a large, bright ball from which the tail extends. This part is called ________.
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the coma
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Suppose there were no solar wind. How would the appearance of a comet in our inner solar system be different?
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It would have only one tail instead of two.
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When we see a meteor shower, it means that ________.
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Earth is crossing the orbit of a comet
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Where did comets that are now in the Kuiper belt originally form?
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near the radius at which they orbit today
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Which of the following is furthest from the Sun?
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a comet in the Oort cloud
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On average, how often do impacts large enough to produce mass extinction on the Earth occur?
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once every hundred million years
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Which of the following statements is not true?
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Objects in the Kuiper belt are made mostly of rock and metal.
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What do we mean by a primitive meteorite?
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A piece of rock that is essentially unchanged since it first condensed and accreted in the solar nebula some 4.6 billion years ago
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Which statement is not thought to be true of all comets in our solar system?
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Comets always have tails.
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If we could put all the asteroids together, their total mass would be ________.
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much less than the mass of any terrestrial planet
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Why didn't a planet form where the asteroid belt is now located?
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Gravitational tugs from Jupiter prevented material from collecting together to form a planet.
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A bit of matter that enters Earth's atmosphere and survives to reach the ground is called
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a meteorite.
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A meteor shower is produced when
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Earth passes through the orbital path of a comet.
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Most of the asteroids orbit the sun in a belt between the orbits of
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Mars and Jupiter.
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Comets falling into the inner solar system from the ____ are called long-period comets.
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Oort cloud
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The gas tail of a comet always
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points away from the sun.
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The gas tail of a comet
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is streaked and shows emission lines of ionized atoms.
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How is the coma of a comet produced?
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Ices vaporize to become gas that form the coma around the comet.
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What characteristic of long-period comets suggest they come directly from the Oort cloud?
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Their orbits have random inclinations with respect to the ecliptic plane.
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Which of the following is evidence for the connection between comets and meteor showers?
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Meteor showers are an annual event. Many of these are known to be when the Earth crosses a comet's orbit.
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Jupiter was probably influential in preventing the formation of a planet at the present location of the asteroid belt.
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True
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