Comets

Yes, spacecrafts have visited both asteroids and comets. Some notable missions include NASA's OSIRIS-REx which visited the asteroid Bennu and JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission which visited the asteroid Ryugu. Additionally, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission visited and landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Edmund Halley was the fellow who first realized that the historical accounts of comets seemed to show that they were not solitary events; that they came back into view on a regular schedule. Examining the records, Halley calculated the probable orbit of the comet and concluded that the comet of 1682 was probably the same comet that had been seen in 1607 and before that in 1531. Halley predicted that the comet would once again be visible in 1758. When it was observed in December, 1758, it was dubbed "Halley's Comet", a title it retains.

To astronomers, Halley's Comet is called "1P/Halley"; the 1P indicates that in the catalog of comets, this is the first entry and that it is "Periodic".

There have been some large ones in history, such as Comet Hale-Bopp, which was 60 miles in diameter. It was a brilliant comet, the biggest one in my lifetime that I have seen. However, it was clear across the Solar System. If it had been near us, like Comet Hyakutake in 1996 at 9 million miles, it would have been an incredible sight.

The asteroid Chiron is about the same size, and it has shown signs of developing a coma. If so, then Chiron is another comet. But it is also a straggler Kuiper Belt object (KBO), which makes one think of the other KBOs. They are icy worlds, and if one were placed in the inner solar system, the ices off the world would stream off to produce a comet. So does that mean that all KBOs are comets? Here we go with Pluto again. The International Astronomical Union has ruled that it is not a planet, but rather a KBO and a "dwarf planet". Could it really be a comet? If Pluto got into the inner Solar System, it would be one big whopper of a comet, perhaps. The same holds for Eris, too, and the other large KBOs. But this leads to the question: what is a comet anyway?

To me a comet is any body that produces a bright center and a faint to bright tail trailing it, and lasting at least an hour (to exclude meteors). The bodies that produce the traditional comets we observe are much like small asteroids or KBOs. They are solid bodies. The comets differ in that they have icy surfaces, unlike the rocky surfaces of Mars-Jupiter asteroids. So to me anything that is capable of producing such a brilliant tail in the sky is a comet. That makes Eris and Pluto comets. So is Eris the largest comet?

No. Recently Astronomy magazine reported an even larger comet. This one is larger than Jupiter. That's correct, larger than Jupiter. They reported that a large body, TrES-4, orbits the star GSC 02620-00648 in Hercules. This body is considerably bigger than Jupiter, maybe twice as big. But it is less massive. Bodies that are between 1 and 80 Jupiters in mass are all of about the same size, with the difference being their density. But this one is considerably larger. It must be a puffball of a planet, with gases on the surface that are heated up by the central star and blown away by the stellar wind, to produce an enormous tail. To me, TrES-4, although it is a gas-giant planet, is also a comet. A really huge comet! But is this the largest comet? No.

There is one much larger than that one, and this object has been known since the 1600s. It is a favorite with amateur astronomers. It is Mira, the wonderful variable star in Cetus. This star varies in magnitude from 2.5 (about the same as Phecda in the Big Dipper) to 10 (a faint dot in an 8-inch telescope), over an irregular period that averages 331 days. It has long been known to be a red giant star about 1.2 times as massive as the Sun, and as large as Mars' orbit. The maxima and minima have been studiously observed since the 1600s. Astronomers have discovered something new with Mira. It is producing a tail in ultraviolet light that makes it look like a comet. If it looks like a comet, then it is one. To me this star qualifies as a comet, as it consists of a bright object with a long tail behind it. The tail is certainly long. Instead of 100 million miles (typical of a Solar System comet), it is 13 light years long! The star is moving fast, and it is ejecting gas, which is forming this tail. So this is a comet, in a planetary system where the central star is itself a comet.

This certainly has to be the largest comet ever discovered.

A comet's tail typically grows longer as it approaches the Sun due to the increasing heat causing more material to vaporize and stream away from the nucleus. As the comet moves away from the Sun in its orbit, the tail may become shorter or dissipate as the material cools and condenses. The tail's size varies depending on factors like the comet's distance from the Sun and the amount of volatile material within the comet.

Comets with extremely elliptical orbits like Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp are known as long-period comets. They have orbits that take them far out into the solar system, sometimes beyond the outer planets, before returning back towards the Sun. These comets can take decades or even centuries to complete a single orbit.

David Levy and Gene Shoemaker met when Levy was a young amateur astronomer and contacted Shoemaker to assist with his comet observations. Shoemaker recognized Levy's potential and mentored him in astronomy, leading to a successful collaboration on discovering comets together.

In 1966 a comet on april 25 pass'ed over my head, going to us as 35 mph approx, I told the hayden planetium and he thought i was nut, till his freind remind'ed him the next day he would'nt shut up, you can get a copy at the 42 nd street library mjcrow film, to us it was the size of a volks wagon ,but they it was the size of a foot ball,Im sorry the paper's said it was gowing 35 m.p.s , hell no i have a peace in my head , like a peace of sand, if you seen andromiter strain # 2 the sattelite was going 35 m.p.s.,In space there is no such thing as a strait line , halley's go's out 27 and a half years then it makes a u-turn, then 27 /1/2/ years to come bsck 75 years I just hope the asteriods dont follow that rout

No. A meteor is the streak of light caused by a space rock passing through the atmosphere. IF the rock survives and hits the Earth, it is a meteorite. A meteor isn't the chunk of rock; it is the streak of light.

Its a quote from Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. The scene centers around Calpurnia (Caesar's wife) pleading for Caesar to not go to the forum. A storm the day before was savage and had many strange anomalies occur during it, such as a tiger appearing on the steps of the capital. Calpurnia says this line to warn Caesar that she fears he may die, also noting that she had a dream where Roman citizens danced in his blood. Ultimately, a member of the group planning to assassinate Caesar arrives and twists the images, with the outcome being Calpurnia allowing Caesar to leave.

Comet Encke's density is estimated to be very low, around 0.6 grams per cubic centimeter. This low density is due to its composition of ice, dust, and rocky material, which is less dense compared to solid rock.

Comets and asteroids can potentially impact Earth, causing damage due to the energy released upon impact. They can also bring valuable resources to our planet, such as water and metals. Additionally, dust and gas released by comets passing close to Earth can affect our atmosphere and climate.

Comets are called 'comets' because of a Greek origin. The words was derived from the Greek word 'kometes' or 'stars with hair,' and was then changed in Latin to 'cometes,' which is where the English spelling is derived from.

No, it is extremely unlikely for a comet to hit Earth on a daily basis. Comets are rare and tend to orbit far from Earth's path. The chance of a comet collision with Earth is very low in a given timeframe.

A cometâ??s structure consists mainly of a rocky material that is considered to be remnants from the creation of the universe. Other than gases like ammonia, there are also water and ice that holds together the structure of a comet.

No, it was last seen from Earth in 1986, 10 years before that, though it was observed in 2003 by what is known as the Very Large Telescope, which is a set of telescopes with great power, that are in Chile.

The comets orbiting Jupitor in the Kuiper Belt are controlled by Jupiters gravity pull. It was thought that Jupitor would keep Earth safe from these many massive comets but it is now known that Jupitor does not always cross the path of them and they get out of the orbit as was the case with Showemaker Levy-9.

According to the Irish legend's in the 1700 Eva was a local girl. When a comet was threatening to hit earth everyone panicked. Except Eva. She went to the cliffs where Bella would become a mermaid 290 years after and produced a tower of light which spared everyone since the comet moved on. Eva was never seen again. The girls think she might have swam away although it is not said what happened to her. I find that she probably died by falling off the cliff. The comet was named after Eva for she spared everyone but probably died in the process.

We believe comets have a composition like a dirty snowball. They contain alot of ice and dust. The ice does trun into a gas when the comet approaches near to the sun and this causes the comet's tail to form.

Astronomers have since calculated the period of Comet C/1811 F1, also known as the "Great Comet of 1811" or sometimes "Napoleon's Comet" in honor of his military conquests, to have a period of 3065 years.

So, our distant descendants might expect it to return in the year 4876AD, assuming that in the year 2650 they don't send out a collector ship to bring it home and mine it to give the Moon an atmosphere. By then, we'll probably be able to do that. And we'll want the space. Just imagine the lunar golf courses! :-)

Comet Hale-Bopp had a peak magnitude of around -1.0 in March 1997, making it one of the brightest comets observed in the 20th century.

Asteroids are minor planets, especially those of the Inner Solar System. However, between the orbital paths of Mars and Jupiter lie a region known as the asteroid belt. Many asteroids come from there, but most of them stay there.

Short-period comets originate from the Kuiper Belt, just outside the orbit of Neptune, while long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud.

No, many thousands - probably MILLIONS - of people had observed what we now call "Halley's Comet" in the thousands of years before Edmund Halley realized that this was probably ONE comet coming back MANY times at regular intervals. Halley "predicted" that the comet would return to become visible again, and named the year - and he was right.

In his honor, and long after his death, the comet was named for him.

An ion tail is made of electrically charged particles and a dust tail is made of dust. Also, an ion tail will always point away from the sun because of the solar winds, while a dust tail tends to follow the comet's orbit and doesn't always point away from the sun.