Science 8 Quarter 2 Week 6 v1

8 Schools Division Office of Quezon City
COMMONWEALTH HIGH SCHOOL

Ecols St., Commonwealth
Quezon City, 2nd District, Metro Manila
SCIENCE 8
Worksheet No. 6 Quarter 2nd Week 6
Name: ___________________________________________ Section: _____________

Date: ___________________________________________ Score: _____________
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Content Standard: The learners demonstrate understanding of the characteristics of comets, meteors,
and asteroids.
Performance Standard: The learners should be able t o discuss whether or not beliefs and
practices about comets and meteors have scientific basis.
MELC: Compare and contrast comets, meteors, and asteroids. LC Code: (S8ES-IIg-22)
Learning Competencies:
Day 1: Characterize comets, meteors, and asteroids.
Day 2: Describe the changes in a fragment from a comet, asteroid, or meteor as it enters the Earth’s
atmosphere.
Day 3: Illustrate the impacts of asteroids and comets on Earth.
Day 4: Determine whether beliefs and practices about comets and meteors are scientific or not.
Concept:
Other Members of the Solar System
We know that our solar system is made up of the sun and the eight planets. Are there other members
of the solar system that you know?
COMETS
What are comets? Where do they come from? Comets are icy bodies that orbit the sun. In the 1950’s,
a Dutch Astronomer named Jan H. Oort, proposed a theory stating that a large cloud of materials can be
found beyond our solar system. These are millions of icy balls, gas and dust that exist in what we call as the
Oort Cloud. The gravitational pull of a passing star may cause one of these balls to fall out and orbit around
the sun. Such object is called comet.
There are three basic parts of a comet: the nucleus which is a solid matter found at the center of the
comet, the coma which is made up of cloud of vapor that encircles the nucleus as sunlight evaporates some of
its ice. The coma and the nucleus make up the comet’s head. Comets have the third part, the tail which
appears only when it gets closer to the sun and disappears as it gets farther from the sun. The tail of the comet
always points away from the sun because it is blown outward by the solar wind. Most of the comets develop
tails that can extend for millions of kilometers as they approach the sun. Early astronomers believe that the
sun has a strong force that drives away particles of the coma to develop tail. This is because the tail of a
comet points away from the sun in a slightly curved manner. Later, scientists identified the two solar forces
that cause tail formation. First is the radiation pressure brought by radiant energy from the sun and the second
is the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted from the sun. Oftentimes a single tail comet is
produced which is composed of both dust and ionized gases, but comets with two tails are observed, too. The
second tail is formed when the extremely light ionized gases are pushed directly away from the sun. The
gases producing the coma re-condense, the tail vanishes, and the comet returns to cold storage as a comet’s
orbit drives it away from the sun. Object that was blown form the coma to produce the tail disappears. The
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Competency: Compare and contrast comets, meteors, and asteroids. Code: S8ES-IIg-22
Prepared by: ALEXANDER C. DAYAG, PhD, MTI Content Evaluator: CALIXTO I. INOVEJAS, MTI
Format Evaluator: ALEXANDER C. DAYAG, PhD, MTI Language Evaluator: WELLA MAE D. MAMBA, TI
Science LR Coor: RONNEL S. FEBRA, TI School LR Coor: MARY GRACE G. CORDERO, MTI
Science Head Teacher VI: NENITA M. LORENZO
AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

Principal IV
SCIENCE 8
inactive comet which looks like an asteroid sustains its orbit without a coma or tail when all the gases are
removed. Scientists believe that few comets continue to be active for more than a few hundreds close orbits
of the sun.
The most famous comet, Halley’s comet, discovered by Edmund Halley in 1682, revolves around the
sun once every 76 years. If this comet came near the Earth last 1986, when will it come back?
METEOROIDS/METEOR/METEORITES
We do know that particles like space rocks and dust can strike the Earth. There are small rocks and
grains of sand that move through space. These are called meteoroids. Meteoroids are rocky bodies ranging
from the size of a grain to tens of meters in diameter. Meteoroids that are 1mm in diameter originates from
the tails of comets. Meteoroids that are larger in size are remnants from asteroid collisions. When these rocky
bodies pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, most of them burn up because of friction and when they do; they
are called meteors or falling stars. If meteors are quite large, parts of them may not burn up as they enter the
Earth’s atmosphere. The rocky body will fall and hit the ground and will be named meteorites.
Meteorites are classified according to their composition. These are (1) iron meteorites that are mostly
composed of iron with 5-20 percent nickel, (2) stony also known as chondrites, composed of silicate minerals
with mixture of other minerals and (3) stony-iron, combination of the two.
We sometimes witness meteor showers on Earth. This happens when Earth passes through the dusty
orbit of a comet. Meteor showers occurs when Earth encounters a group of meteoroids travelling in the same
direction at nearly the same speed as Earth. Some meteoroids not included in the orbits of known comets are
most likely the remains of the nucleus of a comet. Earth passes through the spot where a comet left its dust.
In August, Perseid meteor shower is evident and likely to be materials emitted from the Swift-Tuttle on its
previous approaches to the sun. The table below shows the major meteor showers in 2016.
Major Meteor Showers in 2016

Shower Approximate Dates Peak Activity Meteor Comet of Origin
Count
Lyrids April 22-23 20 meteors/hr Thatcher
Eta Aquarilds May 6-7 45 meteors/hr Halley
Southers Delta Aquarilds July 28-29 20 meteors/hr unknown
Perseids August 11-12 As many as 200 Swift-Tuttle
meteors/hr
Orionids October 21-22 20 meteors/hr Halley
Leonids November 17-18 15 meteors/hr Tempel-Tuttle
Geminids December 13-14 120 meteors/hr Phaethon
ASTEROIDS
Asteroids are large rocky materials with some metals in it. Most of them are found in the asteroid
belt. It is a region between Mars and Jupiter. They orbit the sun just like what the planets do. They are
sometimes known or called as planetoids or minor planets. Is it true that the Earth was hit by an asteroid?
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Principal IV
SCIENCE 8
Some scientists think that a collision between the Earth and an asteroid caused the extinction of dinosaurs.
But this belief has not yet been proven. (Note: all concepts and soe of the activities was copied from Worktext for Grade 8, Science, Educational Resources Corporation)
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Principal IV
SCIENCE 8
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Principal IV
SCIENCE 8
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Principal IV

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8 Schools Division Office of Quezon City

COMMONWEALTH HIGH SCHOOL

Name: _______________________________ Section: _

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

Major Meteor Showers in 2016

AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

AGAPITO T. LERA, PhD

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