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Will Halley's comet still be around when the sun becomes a red giant?
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
The short answer is No, Halley's Comet will not be around when the Sun becomes a red giant. When a comet gets close to the Sun (formally called a perihelion passage), the comet's surface gets heated up, and a layer on the surface sublimates and is lost into space. This means that a comet gets smaller over time, since it loses mass each time it swings by the Sun. As a general rule, a comet whose perihelion is one AU (the same as the average Earth-Sun distance) will lose about one meter of its surface during each perihelion passage. Comets that get closer to the Sun than 1.0 AU may lose several meters of their surface during each perihelion passage. Halley's comet is currently on an orbit with a perihelion of 0.59 AU, so it probably loses several meters from its surface during each perihelion passage. The average diameter of Halley's Comet is about eleven kilometers, so after a few thousand more perihelion passages, none of it will remain. Each orbit of Halley's Comet takes about 75 years, so it will be completely gone within a few hundred thousand years, at most. The Sun will become a red giant in about five billion years, so Halley's Comet would have sublimated out of existence long before then.
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
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Which of these stars is a super giant?
when does Halley's Comet passes by the earth every
Is Jupiter a gas giant or is it terrestrial?
Jupiter is a gas giant. HOWEVER, a comet smashed Into it some years back, so that would make it a rocky planet as well.
Is Pluto a gas giant?
It is most likely made of ice with a rocky core, much like a comet.
What caused Halleys comet tail?
We don't know. I've read estimates that Halley's Comet is probably large enough to survive another ten million years or so.The problem, of course, is that a comet is like a "dirty snowball" in composition. Rocks and dust, loosely bound together by ice. While out in the depths of space, the snowball is perfectly stable. But when the comet approaches the Sun, the ice begins to vaporize and the vapor carries away some of the dust. This forms the tail of the comet.With each approach, the comet becomes smaller and less stable. Some comets experience explosions, when a pocket of vaporized ice is trapped and then bursts carrying chunks of rock and dust away. We cannot predict when that will happen to Halley's Comet, but we know that someday, it WILL.And comets do occasionally collide with things; things like Earth, or Mars, or Jupiter, or asteroids. A lot could happen.
What happens to a star in a close binary system when it becomes a giant?
Nothing usually happens in a binary systems when a star becomes a giant except when two stars are orbiting each other and the one star become a giant it will contract and expand due to the nuclear fusion and it will interact with the other star and will cause a phenomena known as a nova.
What is the name of the part of a comet around the nucleus?
The coma is a giant cloud of dust and gases around the nucleus.
What happens to people if the river becomes polluted?
the government puts a giant dome around the city :)
How many years until the sun becomes a red giant?
Around 5 billion years.
Which of these stars is a super giant?
when does Halley's Comet passes by the earth every
What are the release dates for Space Patrol - 1950 The Prisoner of the Giant Comet 4-19?
Space Patrol - 1950 The Prisoner of the Giant Comet 4-19 was released on: USA: 7 May 1954
When a main-sequence star has exhausted the fuel in its core it becomes a....?
I am pretty sure it becomes a giant if I'm not mistaken.
Will Halley's Comet still be around when the sun turns into a red giant?
The short answer: No, Halley's Comet will not still be around when the Sun becomes a red giant. When a comet gets close to the Sun (formally called a perihelion passage), the comet's surface gets heated up, and a layer on the surface sublimates and is lost into space. This means that a comet gets smaller over time, since it loses mass each time it swings by the Sun. As a general rule, a comet whose perihelion is one AU (the same as the average Earth-Sun distance) will lose about one meter of its surface during each perihelion passage. Comets that get closer to the Sun than 1.0 AU may lose several meters of their surface during each perihelion passage. Halley's comet is currently on an orbit with a perihelion of 0.59 AU, so it probably loses several meters from its surface during each perihelion passage. The average diameter of Halley's Comet is about eleven kilometers, so after a few thousand more perihelion passages, none of it will remain. Each orbit of Halley's Comet takes about 75 years, so it will be completely gone within a few hundred thousand years, at most. The Sun will become a red giant in about five billion years, so Halley's Comet have sublimated out of existence long before then.
What it a solar system?
Usually a collection of bodies that orbit around a star. Our solar system consists of a rocky planet belt, an asteroid belt, a gas giant belt, a comet belt, and then a comet cloud, all of which fall under the influence of our star's gravity and orbit periodically.
How did the dinosaurs leave?
a giant comet hit the earth at super speeds. then the Arizona desert was hit with a comet. and then all the dinosaurs died. hope it never happens again!
Is Jupiter's giant red spot the location of a comet impact?
No. The Great Red Spot is a storm.
Is Jupiter a gas giant or is it terrestrial?
Jupiter is a gas giant. HOWEVER, a comet smashed Into it some years back, so that would make it a rocky planet as well.
When will the world explode into 500 pieces?
Never. The world will be burnt to a crisp when the sun becomes a red giant in around 5 billion years.
