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Moons, Comets,
Meteors, and Asteroids
8th Grade Earth and Space Science
Megan Seivert, ©2015
Pre-Lesson
Worksheet can
be found
HERE
All images from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A satellite is a moon, planet or machine that orbits
a planet or star. There are both artificial satellites
that we create and launch into orbit and also
natural satellites like the Earth (orbiting the Sun)
and Moon (Orbiting the Earth).
To learn even more
about satellites, click
this photo
Satellites

A moon is a natural satellite that can come in many shapes, sizes
and types. They are generally solid and very few have
atmospheres.
Assignment:
Click on the picture and read the
document posted by NASA
about the different moons of our
solar system.
Pay special attention to the
discussion of Pluto and its
moons and look at the
significant dates.
Moons
Then write down something
interesting that you didn’t know
before reading the article.
I will walk around and check
them for completion as you
work.
Our Moon:
This natural satellite is
special because of how
it helps stabilize the
wobble in Earth’s tilt. It
is also the reason for
the tides of our oceans.
Some Important Moons
Jupiter’s Galilean Satellites (four largest moons):
Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar
system with a surface covered in different forms of
sulfur.
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar
system (bigger that Mercury) and is the
only moon known to have it’s own
internally generated magnetic field.
Callisto has a heavily cratered and ancient
surface that shows a visible record of
events from the early history of the solar
system. However, there are signs of
surface activity.
Europa has a surface of mostly ice water
and there is evidence that it covers an
ocean of water or slushy ice. This is
interesting because of it’s potential as a
“habitable zone”.
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Saturn’s Titan is the second largest
moon in the solar system. This
moon is known for it’s dense earthlike atmosphere and flowing lakes,
seas and rivers on its surface. Of
course the liquid is methane and
ethane instead of water.
Saturn’s Iapetus is a two-toned
moon with one hemisphere as
black as coal and the opposite
side is as bright as snow.
Neptune’s Nereid travels in
the most eccentric orbit of
any moon in the solar system.
A few more interesting moons

Comets are cosmic “snowballs” of frozen gases, rock, and dust
roughly the size of a small town. When a comet’s orbit brings
it close to the sun, it heats up and spews dust and gas into a
giant glowing head, which then forms a tail that stretches
away from the sun for millions of kilometers.
What does a passing
comet sound like?
Click here to find out!
Comets
Meteoroids, Meteors,
and Meteorites
Meteoroids are little chunks
of rock and debris in space.
These become Meteors –
Shooting Stars – when they
burn up in an atmosphere,
leaving a bright trail.
Meteorites are pieces that
survive the atmosphere and
hit the ground

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets,
are remnants left over from the early
formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion
years ago. They’re solid, rocky, and
irregular bodies with no
atmosphere that are
too small to be planets.
Asteroids

Most asteroids can be found orbiting the sun in a
huge disk between Mars and Jupiter within the
main asteroid belt.
Go to this link to find out more about our Asteroid
Belt and how it evolved
Asteroid Belt

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States
Government (June 2015). “Images”. Retrieved June 2015.
Ibid. (June 2015). Solar System Exploration: Planets Retrieved June
2015 from: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm
Ibid. (June 2015). NASA Education: What is a Satellite. Retrieved June
2015 from: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/58/features/what-is-a-satellite-58.html#.VXc_9mNOV8E
Ibid. (June 2015). Hubble Space Telescope: Asteroid Belts of Just the
Right Size are Friendly to Life. Retrieved June 2015 from
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/rightsized-belts.html
Credits