1. Meteors’ Hunting in the Antarctic Glaciers
The Antarctica is a popular and unique area for finding meteors because of the extremely cold weather conditions in this area (Gonzalez). Scientists find meteorites easily in the Antarctica since the meteorites are frozen in glaciers. Moreover, these meteorites are well-preserved unlike those that fall on earth or the sea, where they are hidden among other objects.
Identifying meteorites in glaciers is relatively easy. Since meteorites are dark, they are easily visible against an ice background. Moreover, many of them are preserved for years owing to the freezing temperatures of the glaciers. When meteors fall, they are concealed by snow in the many glaciers that are in the Antarctica as illustrated below. As the glaciers move towards the sea, they turn blue due to the squeezing out of air bubbles.
In addition, there are cases where the glaciers cannot move (when Antarctic Mountains create a barrier) and the blue ice is forced to move to the surface. Another scenario is when the ice simply stops to move. In both situations, the ice surface eventually evaporates, especially because of the strong winds in this hemisphere. The end result is the exposure of blue ice and the underlying meteorites. Meteorites in the Antarctica cannot be eroded or weathered away because of the ice (Lunar Planetary Institute).
Wandhwa asserts that meteorites collected from Antarctic glaciers are finds and not falls. This is because they are not picked as soon as they fall. Rather, search teams use special vehicles (see the diagram below) to search among glaciers for the meteorites. Meteors also get concentrated in stranding surfaces near the Antarctic Mountains.
2. General characteristics of a typical comet.
A comet resembles a dirty snowball that emits gas or dust. It is made up of ice, dust, methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia and other elements. Comets are generally a combination of rocky and metallic substances as well as frozen gases (Charles). They are part of the solar system.
Gore asserts that a comet usually orbits the earth. However, they are found in larger quantities in the Oort Cloud, which is located to the exterior of the orbit of planet Pluto. Comets move in elliptical orbits around the sun. Their movement produces a bright ‘tail’ as illustrated in the diagram below. The periods they use to orbit the sun differ, with some having shorter periods (below3 years) and others having longer ones.
Comets have a small diameter of several kilometers (“Comets”). The glowing head of a comet is called a coma (see diagram below), and is formed when frozen gases are turned into vapor by solar energy, as the comet comes near the sun. They do not produce their own light but simply reflect the sun’s light (Gore).
Figure 4: Comet (Source: Google Diagrams).
3. Causes of Meteor Showers and the best time to View them
According to Lynch, as comets pass through the solar system, they emit dust, which causes meteor showers. As the earth orbits the sun in its annual cycle, it passes through the debris of the comet, with the resulting phenomenon being called a meteor shower. Since the earth’s movement is predictable and accurate, meteor showers occur during the same time the following year, as the earth passes through comet debris (See the illustration below).
Between midnight and dawn is the best time to watch a meteor shower (Byrd). The dark background of the night, and the fact that the sun’s rays are focusing on the comet, makes it easy to view a meteor shower as illustrated below:
4. Why Oort Cloud Comets and Kuiper Belt Comets have different shapes.
The comets emanating from the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt are different since they undergo different processes of formation and are composed of varying materials. The Oort cloud is spherical because it is located very far away from the sun, to the extent that gravitational pull from the sun is negligible, but disturbance from other bodies, like stars, is high. It also circles the sun in different directions. On the other hand the Kuiper belt is closer to the solar system and orbits the sun in one direction, like the planets, thus occasioning no transformation to its disc-like structure (See the diagram below).
Figure 7: The Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt (Source: Google Diagrams)
5. Heating Source for Volcanic of Cryo-Volcanic Surfaces
Io is a mountain in Jupiter that experiences volcanic activity like spewing out very hot lava, yet only planet earth is known to have such capabilities. Cryo-volcanoes, unlike conventional volcanoes, emit cold and frozen gases such as ammonia, methane and even water, when they erupt. Gravitational pull from Jupiter and its other lunar objects is so strong that Io is gradually deformed, owing to powerful tides. As a result of the tides, the moon experiences a lot of friction and heat, which result in volcanic activity on Io (King).
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