Why do they call a comet a comet?

Answer 1

The naming scheme for comets produces names like 1P/1682 Q1. This is more informative (if you know how the system works) and precise (the scheme ensures that every comet has a unique name), but considerably less memorable, than "Halley's comet."

Answer 2

The term "comet" comes from the Greek word "kometes," which means "long-haired." This refers to the long tail that comets often develop as they orbit the sun and release gases and dust particles. The word was later adopted into Latin as "cometa," eventually becoming "comet" in English.

Answer 3

The word comet came to the English language through the Latin cometes from the Greek word komē, which means "hair of the head"; Aristotle first used the derivation komētēs to depict comets as "stars with hair."

Source: WikiPedia

Answer 4

Because comets tend to leave trails of debris made of rocks, dust and ice. If the trail passes through earth's orbit then we get to enjoy the shower.

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Each time a comet approaches the Sun, some of the frozen gas of the comet sublimates (melts and boils at the same time) and carries away a little of the dust and pebbles that make up the comet. This is what makes the "tail" of the comet. The solar wind blows the dust out a bit from the comet's nucleus, but not much; the dust and pebbles are still in pretty much the same orbit. A little of it falls behind the comet, and a little is pushed ahead.

Over the course of thousands of passes, the dust and pebbles will spread out along the entire path of the comet's orbit. When the Earth passes through one of these debris trails, we see a meteor shower, caused as a few thousand pebbles and dust flecks enter the atmosphere.

Eventually the comet will disintegrate completely, but that varies on the original mass of the comet and how closely it approaches the Sun at each pass.

Answer 5

A comet is not called a shooting star. A shooting star is the graphic description of a

meteor as it's 'shooting' through the atmosphere, producing a streak of light for a

second or two. When a comet is visible in the sky, it doesn't appear to be moving.

It just hangs there, and appears in a slightly different position among the stars

on the next night.

Answer 6

Long ago, the glowing trails people saw in the sky were thought to be weather phenomena, so they called them "meteors." You may know that meteorology is the study, not of meteors, but of weather. When they finally realized these were rocks from space, they didn't bother to change the name. When a rock was found on the ground which came from a meteor, they added the suffix "-ite" to indicate a rock or mineral.

Now that some of us have gotten in space, we've added the name "meteoroid" to the rocks that are still in space and which haven't started to burn in the atmosphere to make those glowing streaks.

Answer 7

the proffessor Simon Walton discovered comets in 1376 (also the shopkeeper called it that.

Answer 8

A meteor shower (lots of meteors coming form the same point (radiant) in the sky), happens when the Earth's orbit round the Sun takes it through a stream of debris left behind by a comet.

Answer 9

meteor showers happen when earth enters the tail of a comet.

Answer 10

by a native American