THE MEETING The IAU Symposium 160 ASTEROIDS COMETS METEORS 1999 has been held at Villa Carlotta in Belgirate, on the shore of Lago Maggiore (Italy), from June 14 to June 18, 1993. It has been organized by the Astronomical Observatory of Torino and by the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston. It has been a very large meeting, with 323 registered participants from 38 countries. The scientific program included 29 invited reviews, 106 oral communications, and 215 posters. The subjects covered included all the aspects of the studies of the minor bodies of the solar system, including asteroids, comets, meteors, meteorites, interplanetary dust, with special focus on the interrelationships between these. The meeting was structured as follows. 5 morning plenary sessions have been devoted to invited reviews on: (1) search programs (2) populations of small bodies (3) dynamics (4) physical observations and modelling (5) origin and evolution. Two afternoon plenary sessions have been devoted to space missions to small bodies and to interrelationships between the different populations. The afternoon parallel sessions have been devoted to: dynamics of comets; Toutatis, Ida, Gaspra; physical processes in cometary comae and tails; meteorites; the cosmogonic message from cometary nuclei; physics of asteroids; the interplanetary dust complex; comet nuclei; meteors; composition and material properties of comets; dynamics of asteroids.

From earliest times, humans have wondered about the sky above them and have studied all visible objects. People began to identify differences between stars and planets, and as technology advanced with telescopes and space probes, they sought deeper understanding of the millions of bits of debris rocketing through the solar system. Scientists determined that most of these objects are left over from the creation of the planets and their moons. They classified these leftovers into categories such as asteroids, comets, and meteors. In this book, we'll explore seven wonders of asteroids, comets, and meteors. Ceres is a huge mountain-sized asteroid that orbits with other asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Other marvels include Ganymede, the largest asteroid in the group called Earthgrazers or Near-Earth Objects, and Halley's comet, a ball of ice, that passes Earth every seventy-five or so years. We'll also explore the amazing impact that space debris can have on planets and moons. The Borealis Basin, a wondrous crater more than 5,000 miles across, formed when an asteroid collided with Mars in the ancient past. Then we will travel to the far-off Kuiper belt, where as many as 200 million icy bodies orbit, and wonder at the mystery of planetlike objects, such as Pluto and Charon. Finally, we’ll can experience a space wonder firsthand by standing outside on a night in August to watch the spectacular Perseid meteor shower fill the sky.

In this book, your child will be learning about the differences between comets, meteors and asteroids. In particular, your third grader should be able to identify the characteristics of these three mentioned heavenly bodies. If you can’t get your child to read text-laden textbooks, then this very visual resource will be an amazing alternative. Grab a copy today.

Explores how comets, meteors, and asteroids move through our solar system, and explains the ingredients that make a comet's tail and other topics

Explains the differences between comets, asteroids, and meteors, describes the various kinds of small objects that may be found in the solar system, and provides information on the search for these phenomena.