A comet develops a coma because of what?

Answer 1

the coma of a comet is the "dusty" atmosphere around a comets head much much larger than the comet itself. The coma is formed by the interaction of the sun that causes gases to release from the nucleus of the comet as well as sublimation of ices.

Answer 2

A comet develops a coma when it approaches closer to the sun in its orbit. The heat from the sun causes the comet's ice and other volatile materials to vaporize and create a cloud of gas and dust around the comet's nucleus, forming the coma.

Answer 3

Comet is like a bright head with a long tail-millions of kms.the tail is always away from the sun &grows when approaches the sun.these move in elliptical orbits& their revolution period is longer.comets appear to us periodically, 1 eg. is-Halley's comet--which appears once in 76 years.it was seen last in 1986.this was discovered by Halley.guess when it appears again...! comets were thought to originate in the icy & a dry place called the "OORT CLOUD", more than 100 light years (its distance) from the solar system,4 to5 billion years ago;& new ones are even taking their birth from their parents' collision!

Answer 4

Comets do not "fall", they are in orbit around the sun. Most are made of rocky material and icy mixtures of water and various other chemicals. As a comet approaches the Sun, the surface is heated and essentially boils off. Scientists call the process sublimation. The gas and dust creates a head, also called a coma, and sometimes a tail. Sunlight reflects off the material, making some comets visible from Earth.

Answer 5

-Asteroids are minor planets, Minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the sun that is neither a planet nor originally classified as a comet

-Comets are an icy small solar system body that went passing close to the sun

-Meteors are a small rocky or metalic body traveling through space

Answer 6

Comets are small bodies of rock and ice which are in a highly eccentric orbit around the sun. They spend most of their time slowly orbiting the sun, far out beyond the outer planets. Their orbit eventually comes close to the sun, where the surface is heated and gives the comet its tails. They are thought to be objects from the Kuiper belt, a group of icy rocks far out beyond the orbit of Neptune. Gravitational effects of the planets and other objects may knock these off their regular orbits into the highly eccentric comet orbit.

Answer 7

A coma of a comet is the fuzzy, gaseous head of a comet. It is formed when a comet approaches our sun, and solar energy begins to vaporize the ices, producing the coma.

Answer 8

Apparently there is no such cause, because

comets don't look like shooting stars at all.

Answer 9

Pressumably that would be caused by some gravitational disturbance; this may be from another object in the Oort cloud, or from a nearby star.

Answer 10

The same thing that causes the planets to head for the sun, Gravity.