Asteroids and Meteors: Practice Problem Solutions

1. Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, about 2.2 to 3.2 AU from the Sun.

2. Ceres (about 940 km across), now classified as a dwarf planet.

3. A meteoroid is a small object in space; a meteor is the streak of light as it burns up; a meteorite is a piece that lands on the ground.

4. Earth passing through the trail of dust and debris left by a comet.

5. A stone meteorite crashed through a house roof and hit Ann Hodges, the only known person in the United States hit by a meteorite from space.

6. To test whether we could change an asteroid's path by hitting it (it shortened the orbit of Dimorphos by about 32 minutes).

7. They are too small for their gravity to pull them into a ball.