Comets
What are Comets?
Comets are balls of Ice and dust that orbit the sun in long eliptical orbits.
A famous comet is Comet Halley which passes earth roughy every 76 years.
Where
Do They Come From?
Most comets you see come from the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is full of the
stuff that comets are made of. Sometimes they fall into the inner solar system
where we see them.
What Are They Made Of?
Comets are often called "Dirty Snowballs" because they are a mixture
of Ices That are both frozen water and frozen gases and dust that for some
odd reason didn't get incorperated into planets when the solar system was
created.
How Often Do They Cross Earth's Orbit?
As of 1995, 878 Comets have been catalouged and their orbits roughly calculated.
184 are periodic comets. Most of the comets you have seen are periodic.
How Are They Found?
Most comets Are found by amateur Astronomers useing
large binoculars
and when they find one they publish their findings.
How Do You View Them?
You take binoculars when you find out when a comet is visable and go out and
look!
some comets are visable without binoculars.
How Old Are They?
Astronemers think that the dust in Comets is stuff that never formed into
planets
the dust could Have been around since the solar system was formed 5 Billion
years ago.
What is the Tail?
The tail is dust and gas. It can get up to one hundred million km long made
out of smoke sized dust particles driven off the nucleus by esapeing gases.
This is the most promenent feature of a comet to the unaided eye.
How Big Can They Get?
The nucleus of a comet is not as big as the tail. Surrounding that is the
coma which is 1 million km
The nucleus of comet Halley is 10 km(6 mi) across.
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Is a Shooting Star A Comet?
No, a shooting star is a meteor that ignites in earths
atmosphere and looks a lot like a comet. Shooting stars only last a few seconds
while comets last a lot longer
