Seven Wonders of Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors

Seven Wonders of Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors — page 1
4 INTRODUCTION PEOPLE LOVE TO MAKE LISTS OF THE BIGGEST AND THE BEST ALMOST TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO A GREEK WRITER NAMED HERODOTUS MADE A LIST OF THE MOST AWESOME THINGS EVER BUILT BY PEOPLE THE LIST INCLUDED BUILDINGS STATUES AND OTHER OBJECTS THAT WERE LARGE WONDROUS AND IMPRESSIVE LATER OTHER WRITERS ADDED NEW ITEMS TO THE LIST WRITERS EVENTUALLY AGREED ON A FINAL LIST IT WAS CALLED THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD The list became so famous that people began imitating it They made other lists of wonders They listed the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages People even made lists of undersea wonders and the wonders of science and technology But Earth doesn't contain all the wonders that have been discovered Our planet shares the solar system with many other worlds They all have wonderful things to see THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM After a house is built a big pile of material is always left over The same thing happened after the formation of the solar system The Sun and the planets were formed from a huge cloud of dust and gas This dust and gas came together to form tiny clumps of rock metal and ice These tiny clumps gathered into bigger clumps After millions of years these clumps were large enough to become the Sun and the planets