Lecture 21 – Minor Solar System Objects, Part 1/2: Asteroids and Meteoroids
Summary / Checklist of the Main Concepts to Understand and Remember

Asteroids
	Can asteroids be seen with the naked eye? Approximately when were they first discovered? How can they be recognized?
	What are asteroids? What are they made of? What do their surfaces look like?
	Where are most of them located? [What are Trojan asteroids?]
•	Do asteroids revolve around the Sun along orbits of the same type as those of the planets?
•	Why do we think that there used to be many more asteroids, and what might have happened to the ones that are no longer around?
•	What is a resonance? Why are there so many asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, instead of one more planet?
•	Which is the largest asteroid, and how large is it? How can we find out how big an asteroid is?
•	Why are most asteroids not round? Can an asteroid have a moon?
	Have spacecraft been near, or landed on any asteroids?
	Why is studying some asteroids more useful than studying planets if we want to find out how the solar system formed?
Meteoroids
	Is the arrival of rocks or other material from space on Earth a rare of a frequent occurrence?
	What are meteors, or "shooting stars"? What are meteor showers, and why do they happen every year on certain fixed dates?
•	What are meteorites? Where do meteorites on Earth come from? Are they easier to find in some places on Earth? (Why?)
•	The 1908 Tunguska event, the most recent impact from space that caused significant damage over a large area.
•	[What do we think is the connection between an impact from space and the extinction of the dinosaurs?]

Topics from the lecture page and textbook not listed above [or between square brackets] were not covered in class;
Underlined words indicate that I will expect students to remember a number or a name related to that topic.

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