Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain
Yes. Halley's comet is responsible for the Eta Aquariids and the Orionids.
75.3 years
9001 cubic metres
In a small locked box at the tip of the tail.
Edmond Halley saw a fuzzy star with a tail in 1682 and correctly predicted that it would reappear in 1758. This periodic comet was later named Halley's Comet in his honor.
Halley's comet appears as a bright ball of light with a long, glowing tail. It is typically visible to the naked eye and has been observed by astronomers for centuries. The length and brightness of its tail can vary depending on its position in its orbit around the sun.
Sure. As a comet approaches the sun, the comet sheds some of its material, which trails behind it for millions of kilometers. It is this tail that is the most visible part of a comet. In fact, the word comet means "hairy star," referring to the long, streaming tail. In 1910, the earth actually passed through the tail of Halley's Comet.
No, Halley's Comet does not have rings. It is a periodic comet that orbits the Sun every 75-76 years, and its nucleus is surrounded by a glowing coma and a tail formed by dust and gas particles as it gets closer to the Sun.
Right now, on March 20, 2011? There is none. The frozen core of Halley's Comet is drifting away from the Sun, and is out past the orbit of Neptune and slowing down. In about 10 years, Halley's Comet will reach aphelion (the farthest point in its orbit) and slowly begin to fall back inward. The comet probably won't develop any kind of tail until it gets in about to the orbit of Jupiter; that will be around 2055 or so.
A comet's ion (gas) tail always points directly away from the sun. Some comets also have a dust tail (antitail) which may curve slightly away to the side of the ion tail.
The tail of a comet is made up of dust and gas. The dust tail is composed of particles that reflect sunlight, while the gas tail is made up of ionized gas that is pushed away from the comet by the solar wind.
Most comet tails are millions of miles long, for example the Halley's comet, with a tail stretching 50 million kilometers. As well as the Great Comet of 1843, the tail reaching 2 AU in length. (One AU is about 150 000 000km)