How does a comet change as it travels through space?

Answer 1

Comets are like "dirty snowballs"; frozen gasses with dust and rocks in them. Each pass near the Sun causes the comet's nucleus to be exposed to intense sunlight, which causes some tiny fraction of the gas to evaporate and carry some of the dust and rock away into space. The gas and dust, near the Sun, cause the comet's "tail", and repeated passes cause dust and rock to spread out along most of the orbit of a comet. When the Earth enters one of these trails of old comet dust, we have meteor showers.

On rare occasions, comets break apart or even more rarely, crash into planets. In 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart and then collided with the planet Jupiter.

Answer 2

As a comet nears the sun, a tail forms from the solar wind blowing off dust particles from the comet. The tail lengthens as the solar wind intensifies and the comet approaches closer and closer. In some cases, comets have been known to collide with the sun, fragment, or completely burn away due to the sun.

Comets are made partially by ice, and the trail is some melting ice. This is the reason we see the trail behind the sun.

Answer 3

As a comet travels through space, it begins to heat up as it approaches the Sun, causing ice and gases to vaporize and create a glowing coma and tail. The tail of a comet always points away from the Sun due to the solar wind. Over time, repeated passes near the Sun can cause a comet to lose its volatile materials and break apart.

Answer 4

it gains and loses a coma and tail