Comets how do they form

For example, Comet Halley is named for Edmund Halley, who determined that comets observed in , , and had essentially the same orbits and thus were a single comet. Based on his calculations, he correctly predicted the comet's return in , but unfortunately, he did not live to see Comet Halley. Sometimes more than one person reports a new comet at the same time.

Comet Halley, viewed in the spring of Detachment Event - Halley's Comet. How big are comets? A comet's nucleus is typically 1 to 10 kilometers 0. The tail, however, can stretch for tens of millions of kilometers. What are comets are made of? Most of our information comes from studying the spectra of different comets. Scientists study the light reflected by different parts of a comet.

Gases contain different elements. Each element such as hydrogen , molecule such as water , or ion an electrically charged element or molecule has a distinct pattern of emission or absorption that can be determined in the laboratory; this pattern is known as its spectrum. By matching patterns between laboratory measurements and comet observations, scientists can determine the composition of the comet.

Every comet is made of the same basic ingredients — ice and dust. However, comets probably vary in how much of the ice is water ice and how much is ice made of other substances, such as methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. Comets also vary in the different types of trace elements and hydrocarbons are present.

Several space missions, such as the European Space Agency's Giotto mission, have explored comets and provided detailed imagery of comet surfaces. A few missions are intended to sample comets. NASA's Deep Impact mission will encounter Comet Tempel 1 in July , and will release a projectile into the comet surface to excavate a hole and expose a fresh surface on the nucleus. The spacecraft will collect data on comet emissions and will relay the data to scientists on Earth.

While the data from these missions will be from only a few comets and might not be representative, the data will greatly improve our understanding of comet compositions. Key Facts Comets Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ices. Kid-Friendly Comets Comets orbit the Sun just like planets and asteroids do, except a comet usually has a very elongated orbit. JPL's lucky peanuts are an unofficial tradition at big mission events.

It's suspected that about 5, years ago a comet swept within 23 million miles of the Sun, closer than the innermost planet Mercury. Models and lab tests suggest the asteroid could be venting sodium vapor as it orbits close to the Sun, explaining its increase in brightness.

A one-time visitor to our inner solar system is helping explain more about our own origins. A wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. As Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on Dec. The nucleus is the solid core of a comet consisting of frozen molecules including water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia as well as other inorganic and organic molecules — dust.

According to ESA the nucleus of a comet is usually around 10 kilometers across or less. As a comet gets closer to the sun, the ice on the surface of the nucleus begins turning into gas, forming a cloud around the comet known as the coma.

According to science website howstuffworks. Surrounding the coma is a hydrogen envelope that can be up to 6. As the comet gets closer to the sun, the hydrogen envelope gets bigger.

There are two main types of comet tails, dust and gas. Comet tails are shaped by sunlight and the solar wind and always point away from the sun according to Swinburne University of Technology. According to NASA, comet tails get longer as a comet approaches the sun and can end up millions of miles long.

The dust tail is formed when solar wind pushes small particles in the coma into an elongated curved path. Whereas the ion tail is formed from electrically charged molecules of gas. Comet tails may spray planets, as was the case in with Comet Siding Spring's close encounter with Mars. We can see a number of comets with the naked eye when they pass close to the sun because their comas and tails reflect sunlight or even glow because of energy they absorb from the sun. However, most comets are too small or too faint to be seen without a telescope.

Comets leave a trail of debris behind them that can lead to meteor showers on Earth. For instance, the Perseid meteor shower occurs every year between August 9 and 13 when Earth passes through the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Astronomers classify comets based on the durations of their orbits around the sun.

When a comet comes close to the Sun, it begins to heat up and the ice begins to sublimate and changes directly from solid to a gas without changing into a liquid stage.

When ice sublimates some of the dust is left behind. On the surface of the nucleus, it forms a dark protective crust and slows the process of melting. The gas and dust from the cloud of the coma. So, we understood that when a comet gets closer to the Sun, the tails of the comet get longer and more impressive.

When a comet approaches the Sun, it gets hotter and the material is released more rapidly. As a result, the tail is produced. According to the scientists when comet reaches close to the Sun it loses between 0.

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