A celestial body consisting mainly of ice, dust and gas in an (usually very eccentric) orbit around the Sun and having a "tail" of matter blown back from it by the solar wind as it approaches the Sun
A comet is a planetesimal in orbit around the sun Comets are believed to be composed of dust and volatile ices When close to the sun, comets become heated enough to produce a coma of gas and dust As this gas and dust moves outward from the comet, it is "blown" away by the solar wind and forms the comet's tail
A solid body composed primarily of a combination of ice and cosmic dust They are thought to have formed very far out in the solar nebula early in the formation of the solar system There are those with close-in orbits, the Kuiper objects which orbit out near Uranus, and the Oort Cloud objects, which orbit at very large distances out from the Sun Occasionally, these orbits are perturbed so that the comets come into the inner solar system
A small Solar System object, composed mainly of ice, dust and rocky material, in orbit around the Sun As a comet approaches the Sun, it frequently forms tails of dust and plasma, blown away from the comet by the Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind The tails always point away from the Sun
A member of the solar system which usually moves in an elongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion
A body of the solar system, composed of ices and rocks The frozen material evaporates as the comet approaches the sun and, driven away by the solar wind, forms the comet tail (More information can be found here )
A small chunk of ice, dust, and rocky material (only a few miles across) which, when it comes close enough to the Sun, can develop a tenuous "tail '' Tails of comets are made of gas and dust that have been driven off the comet's surface by the Sun's energy and they always point away from the Sun (no matter what direction the comet is moving) Comets spend most of their time very far from the Sun, and are active only for a short period (a few months at most) as they move quickly around the Sun on their elongated orbits
An object orbiting the Sun, often made of ice (although not necessarily water ice ) Comets are usually seen when they enter the inner Solar System, and heat from the Sun causes gas and dust to stream out in several tails Many comets have a straight gas tail and a curved dust tail The tail(s) will always be pointed away from the Sun, regardless of the comet's direction See also: asteroid
A body moving through our solar system that has an icy nucleus Solar wind (radiation pressure) directs the tail of gas and dust away from the sun [2: asteroid ]; [2: meteorite ]
One of the small, icy bodies that orbit the sun that make tails of gas and dust when they get close to the sun See Asteroid, Comet and Meteor Facts page
small interplanetary body consisting of ices and dust that is in orbit around the Sun As it nears the Sun, its surface material vaporizes to form a large head, or coma, at whose center lies a bright nucleus where its mass is concentrated
comets are similar to asteroids but contain much more ice in them When they pass the orbit of Jupiter and approach the sun, the ice sublimates and creates a ball of gas around the comet The solar wind then blows the gas away from the comet, creating the part of a comet most known by people, its tail
— One of the primitive icy bodies originating in the outer reaches of the solar system that are in elliptical orbits around the Sun Near the Sun, the icy material vaporizes and streams off the comet, forming a glowing tail
A celestial body orbiting the sun (though some may be ejected from the solar system by planetary perturbations) that displays (at least during a portion of its orbit) some diffuseness and/or a "tail" of debris that points generally in the anti-solar direction Both the diffuseness (generally called a coma) and the tail are composed of gas and/or dust of various atomic or molecular compositions, as is ascertained by spectroscopy The coma and tail material come from a much smaller nucleus that is usually invisible due to the bright surrounding coma activity Close-up pictures of a cometary nucleus did not occur until spacecraft fly-bys of Halley's comet in 1986 A more detailed explanation of what a comet is may be found in the Press Information Sheet on comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)
A chunk of frozen gasses, ice, and rocky debris that orbits the Sun A comet nucleus is about the size of a mountain on earth When a comet nears the Sun, heat vaporizes the icy material producing a cloud of gaseous material surrounding the nucleus, called a coma As the nucleus begins to disintegrate, it also produces a trail of dust or dust tail in its orbital path and a gas or ion tail pointing away from the Sun Comet comas can extend up to a million miles from the nucleus and comet tails can be millions of miles long There are thought to be literally trillions of comets in our solar system out past Neptune and Pluto, but only once per decade or so does one become near and bright enough to see easily without binoculars or a telescope
A small body, composed mainly of ice and dust, in an elliptical orbit about the Sun As it comes close to the Sun, some of its material is vaporized to form a gaseous head and extended tail
A volatile-rich body that develops a transient atmosphere as it orbits the Sun The orbit is usually highly elliptical or even parabolic (average perihelion distance less than 1 AU; average aphelion distance, roughly 104 AU) When a comet comes near the Sun, some of its material vaporizes, forming a large head of tenuous gas, and often a tail formed by the solar wind
A gigantic ball of ice and rock that orbit the Sun in a highly eccentric orbit Some comets have an orbit that brings them close to the Sun where they form a long tail of gas and dust as they are heated by the Sun's rays
A comet is a bright object with a long tail that travels around the sun. Halley's Comet is going to come back in 2061. an object in space like a bright ball with a long tail, that moves around the sun (cometa, from kometes , from kome ; because of its long tail). Any of a class of small icy objects orbiting the Sun and developing diffuse gaseous envelopes and often long glowing tails when near the Sun. They are distinguished from other objects in the solar system by their composition, hazy appearance, and elongated orbits. Most comets originate in the Oort cloud or in the Kuiper belt. Other bodies' gravity can alter their orbits, causing them to pass close to the Sun. Short-period comets return in 200 years or less, others in thousands of years or not at all. A comet typically consists of a small, irregular nucleus, often described as a "dirty snowball," with dust and other materials frozen in water mixed with volatile compounds. When one nears the Sun, the heat vaporizes its surface, releasing gases and dust particles, which form a cloud (coma) around the nucleus. Material in the coma may be pushed away from the Sun by its radiation and the solar wind, forming one or more tails. Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through dust left by the passage of a comet. Encke's Comet Hale Bopp Comet Halley's Comet
(a) Comprised of a tiny nucleus of water ice, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia with dust and rock embedded in it like a dirty snowball, and a coma created as the comet nears the Sun and begins to vaporise Radiation pressure creates a broad, flat dust tail along the comet's orbit Large dust particles may then form meteor streams The solar wind, of charged particles streaming away from the Sun, creates a bluish ion tail which is directed straight away from the Sun There's lots more about comets but it'll have to wait cuz I WANT MY DINNER (b) Yes they are snowballs Thrown by goblins in long-forgotten fights, captured by the Sun and condemned to orbit forever
[ 'kä-m&t ] (noun.) before 12th century. Middle English comete, from Old English cometa, from Latin, from Greek komEtEs, literally, long-haired, from koman to wear long hair, from komE hair.