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 Form 1 Geography lessons on the earth and the solar system

Other Heavenly Bodies

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Natural Satellites
• Any natural heavenly body that orbits around a planet e.g. moon for earth, tritan for Saturn and Triton for Neptune.
Asteroids/Planetoids
• Also called minor planets.
• Are small fragments of rocks left going around the sun when the solar system was formed.
• Found between Mass and Jupiter
• Are 1500 in number
• They sometimes collide with each other and planets due to Jupiter’s gravitational pull causing them to move in erratic orbits. Comets • Heavenly bodies which appear to have a head and a long tail
• Made of ice, dust and frozen gas
• The head is made of many particles of dust, rock and frozen gases.
• Their tail is made of gases and points away from the sun.
• Move around the sun in extremely long and oval orbits
• Their orbits cross the earth’s orbits e.g. Halley’s Comet which appears after every 76 years.
Meteoroid
• Small heavenly body which strays from its orbit in the solar system and enters the earth’s atmosphere at very high speed.
Meteor
• A meteoroid which is burning out due to friction after entering the earth’s atmosphere. Meteorite
• Remains of a meteoroid which have reached the earth’s surface or incompletely burnt up meteoroid.
• When they fall they sink into the ground forming craters
•They are rich in iron
The Moon
• A natural satellite
• Receives its light from the sun and reflects it onto the earth.
• It revolves around the earth
• Takes 29.5 days to complete one revolution around the earth
• Its orbit is almost circular
• As it revolves around the sun it appears in various shapes ranging from crescent/new moon, half moon, gibbons moon and full moon.
• Has gravitational pull which causes the rising and falling of the ocean level
• As the moon orbits around the earth it creates an event called eclipse.


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