Telescopes

• The most common type of telescope is the optical telescope (collect visible light)

• Two Types of optical telescopes:Refracting (lenses)Reflecting (mirrors)

Refracting Telescopes

Reflecting Telescopes

• There is less error in a reflecting telescope because light never passes through glass.

Other types of Telescopes

• Radio Telescopes – detect radio waves• Uses an array of satellite dishes to collect radio

waves.

Other types of Telescopes

• Infrared Telescope – detects heat

Space Telescopes

• Hubbell Space Telescope

• Spitzer Space Telescope

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope

Images from the Spitzer Space Telescope

Meteors, Meteorites and Meteoroids

• All three are the same object, just found in different locations

Meteoroid

• Rocky fragment floating through space• Large as a boulder or small as a grain of sand• Has no orbit

Meteor• The light created as a meteoroid passes

through a planets’ atmosphere.• Also called “Shooting Stars.”• 5-15 can be seen nightly.• ~ 100 million enter the Earth’s atmosphere

daily• Add several tons to the Earth every day• When many enter at once it is called a meteor

shower. (generally from a comets’ tail)

Meteorite

• Meteor that strikes a planet’s surface• Made of stone or iron or a mixture of both

(weigh several ounces to 35 tons)• Most are found in Antarctica

Hoba Meteorite – 66 tons