Part III

once considered the ninth planetmost famous dwarf planetsmaller than a planet but massive enough for

its own gravity to give it a round shapeit is not the largest dwarf planet

often referred to as “dirty snowballscomposed of ice, rock, and gas.They travel in a long, elliptical orbitmost spectacular feature of a comet is its long

dust tail, which can stretch for millions of kilometres.

In the 1700s, British astronomer Edmond Halley was searching records and realized that a bright comet was visible every 76 years or so.

Asteroids are small bodies that are believed to be leftover remains of the formation of the solar system.

Asteroids range from the size of sand grains up to about 1000 km across

Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a band between Mars and Jupiter

Meteoroids are pieces of rock floating through space.

Meteors are meteoroids that burn up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed

Meteorites are meteors are large enough to survive passing through the atmosphere, and they reach Earth’s surface.

Impact sites

the Canadarm 1 on the space

shuttle

the International Space Station (Canadarm 2)

The newest development is the robotic manipulator officially named Dextre (for “dexterous”), a two-armed robot that attaches to the end of Canadarm 2.

Roberta Bondar First Canadian female Astronaut

Marc Garneau First Canadian AstronautChris Hadfield First Canadian Space walk

RocketsMuch of the body of

a rocket is filled with explosive fuels that combine to create thrust

Space SuitsA space suit acts as

a small spaceship communications

system, a coolingPressure system

Orbiting Satelliteselectronic devices put

in orbit around Earth to relay information

Communication satellites are placed in geosynchronous orbit.

ProbesProbes are designed

to travel millions of kilometres, carrying scientific instruments to analyze distant objects in space.

Voyager 1Went to Jupiter and Saturn

RoversSending human

explorers on long space journeys to distant, dangerous planets is not a practical idea.

Robotic space explorers offer a better option. Spirit and Opportunity

Went to Mars

Optical telescopesOptical telescopes use

lenses to gather and focus light to provide a magnified view.

a wide-field high resolution CCD mosaic of 36 CCDs

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Reflecting telescopes use a series of mirrors to collect light and project the image to an eyepiece lens

Hubble space telescope

Very clear outside Earth’s Atmoshere

Radio telescopesCollect wavelengths

that are longer than those of light

Reveal characteristics of celestial objects that could not be studied using optical telescopes

Very Large Array Radio Telescope

baseline of 36 km

adaptive opticstechnology used to

improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion.

SpectroscopyStudy of the absorption

and emission of light and other radiation by matter, as related to the dependence of these processes on the wavelength of the radiation