The Bridge V Learning Edition 1 ; our solar system | Page 31

Many asteroids form large rings or belts around the Sun. There are two asteroid belts in our
Solar System: the main belt (or simply called asteroid belt) between Mars and Jupiter, with
thousands of asteroids (see picture below), and the Kuiper belt, named after its discoverer, a
disk-shaped region that extends outside of Neptune’s orbit and contains countless asteroids and
many dwarf planets, of which Pluto is the most famous.
Jupiter
Mars
Earth
Asteroids
Credit: UNAWE / C.Provot
Full description
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Ask the children to take a piece of clay the size of their fist.
Let them divide it into small pieces and place these fragments on a table.
Now ask them to squeeze all the pieces together to form one large asteroid, without
kneading it.
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Let them hit the clay chunk with the knuckle of a finger a few times.
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After washing their hands, they can paint the asteroid.
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Explain to the children that asteroids really form this way: little pieces clump together
to form one giant rock. Planets also form this way. Around every young star is a disc
of little pieces of dust, out of which planets and asteroids form.
Tip: You can also tell the children about comets. Comets are like dirty snowballs or icy lumps of
mud. They consist of a mixture of ice (from water as well as from frozen gases) and dust. Like
asteroids, comets revolve around the Sun. However, their orbits are strongly elongated
compared to planets, meaning they occasionally get very close to the Sun, and at times they get
very far away. When they cross a planet’s orbit, they could collide with it. This happened, for
example, in 1994, when the comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with planet Jupiter and broke into
pieces. When comets come close to the Sun in their orbit, the ice in their core melts and
evaporates. This causes a beautiful tail, which can be clearly seen in the night sky if the comet
passes by the Earth closely enough.
In 2061, Halley’s Comet will once again come close to the Earth. It orbits our Sun once every 76
years. Remember to mark its arrival on your calendar!