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Comets
Comets are small solar system bodies that orbit around the Sun. They have a tail (trail of light) when traveling in space.
1,186 Questions
Where are general locations of comets?
Comets are generally found in two main regions of the solar system: the Kuiper Belt, located beyond the orbit of Neptune, and the Oort Cloud, a sphere of icy bodies surrounding the solar system at a vast distance. When comets get closer to the sun, they can become visible from Earth as they develop tails of gas and dust.
Can you see a comet without a telescope?
Some comets can be seen without any mechanical help if they are large enough or come close to the earth. Any sort of telescope will help you see more comets if you know where to look and what to look for.
Do comets and meteors have anything in common?
Yes they do, they are both rocks from outer-space. They both have a nucleus and they both travel in space. The thing that comets and meteors have in common is that they all travel in space and most of them all have not changed because of their formation in the solar nebula.
Why is a comet visible for only a short portion of its orbit around the sun?
A comet is visible for only a short portion of its orbit around the sun because it only becomes bright and visible when it gets closer to the sun. As it approaches the sun, the sun's heat vaporizes the comet's icy surface, creating a glowing coma and tail that make it visible from Earth. Once the comet moves away from the sun, it becomes dimmer and harder to see.
What is the physical description of a comet tail?
A comet tail is a long, thin stream of gas and dust that trails behind a comet as it travels through space. It can be millions of kilometers long and is illuminated by the sunlight, creating a bright and dynamic appearance. The tail always points away from the Sun due to solar radiation pushing the gas and dust particles away from the comet's nucleus.
What is shoemaker levy 9 mass?
Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet that collided with Jupiter in July 1994. It had a total mass estimated to be around 500 trillion kilograms (500 gigatons). The impact of the comet on Jupiter created large scars on the planet's surface that were visible for weeks.
What is the difference between a comet and an asteroid compared to a meteor?
A Comet:comets are also members of our solar system , they move around the sun in highly elliptical orbits. Their period of revolution around the sun is usually very long. A comet appears as a bright head with a long tail . The tail of the comet is always directed away from the sun. Some comets are known to appear periodically
. One such comet is the Halley's comet which appears nearly after 76years.
Asteroids:There is a huge gap between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. this gap is occupied by the asteroids , which revolve around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
So , comet is like a body that revolves periodically around the sun whereas there is an asteroid belt already present in the solar system.
Meteor: A meteor is a small object that sometimes enters the atmosphere of the Earth. When it does so its speed is very high , and due to friction it lights up and evaporates quickly. That is why at night sometimes we see a bright streak of light , commonly known as a shooting star.
Sometimes the meteor is too large and does not evaporate completely , and hits the surface of the earth .This body is called a Meteorite.
What one is bigger Halley's comet or Ceres?
Ceres is bigger than Halley's comet. Ceres is a dwarf planet located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with a diameter of about 590 miles, while Halley's comet has a nucleus estimated to be about 6 miles wide.
Comets spend the majority of their time in the far reaches of our solar system, where they are not easily visible from Earth. They only become visible when they enter the inner solar system and are illuminated by the Sun, hence their rare appearances. Additionally, many comets have long orbital periods, further contributing to their infrequent sightings.
What is the definition of a comet head?
The comet head refers to the spherical cluster of dust and gas surrounding the comet's nucleus, which is primarily composed of ice, dust, and organic compounds. As the comet approaches the Sun, the heat causes this material to vaporize and form the comet's characteristic coma or fuzzy halo.
What is Halley's comet rotation rate?
Halley's Comet does not rotate, but perhaps you mean revolve, as in how long it takes to revolve around the sun.
If that is what you mean, then the revolutionary period of Halley's Comet is about 75-76 earth years.
Why do people call asteroids meteors and comets space trashor debris?
People often refer to asteroids, meteors, and comets as space trash or debris because they are remnants from the formation of the solar system that are no longer part of a larger celestial body. Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the sun, meteors are asteroids that enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up, and comets are icy bodies that release gas and dust as they approach the sun. These objects can be considered "trash" in the sense that they are leftover material floating in space.
What are the other examples of comet?
Some other examples of comets include Comet Halley, Comet Hale-Bopp, and Comet Hyakutake. These comets are known for their brightness, size, and visibility from Earth.
What are the characteristic of comet?
Comets are small asteroid-like bodies when they are far from the Sun, traveling in highly ellipical orbits about the Sun. When they sweep in close to the Sun, dramatic changes occur as they brighten and develop an extended tail. The nucleus is widely described as a "dirty snowball" composed of ice and some rocky debris.
Halley's CometThere is considerable vaporization as they approach the Sun and they develop ion tails and dust tails. The ion tails are almost straight streamers from the nucleus while the usually brighter dust tails are broad and diffuse and curve slightly, lagging behind the radial direction.
The lighter ionized gas atoms of the ion tale cause it to point outward, directly away from the Sun, because the influence of the solar wind is dominant. I take the lower, more focused part of the tail in the image above to be the ion tail. The dust tail is made up of more massive particles and the role of gravity is important. If particles influenced by gravity are moved to an orbit further from the Sun, their radial direction falls behind that of the nucleus of the comet because their orbital period will be longer. The upper part of the Halley image would then appear to be the dust tail - you can see a slight curvature. In its most visible phase close to the Sun, the comet has a small solid nucleus and a ball of gas around it called the coma. Comas have been found to be on the order of 100,000 km in diameter at their maximum size, comparable to the largest planets. Most aof the light reflection is from the coma. Surrounding the coma and the visible tails is a hydrogen envelope which may extend millions of kilometers. The light from comets is purely reflected light; like the planets, the comets produce no light of their own.
Current models of the nuclei of comets view them as balls of loosely packed ices, a cold mixture containing gas and dust. The dust is thought to be trapped in a mixture of methane, ammonia, and water ice. The smaller moons of the outer solar system are similar in constitution. Since they spend most of their time far from the Sun, their temperatures are thought to be a few tens of kelvins. Chaisson & McMillan suggest a core temperature of 200K and a surface temperature on the order of 350K for Halley when it made its close approach to the Sun.
The short-period comets (less than 200 years) are thought to originate in a region of the solar system out past the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper belt (30 to 100 AU). Most of them are found to have prograde orbits (in the same orbital direction as the planets) and to be close to the ecliptic plane. The Kuiper belt is described as a region of asteroid-like comets, most of which travel in roughly circular orbits. It may be that occasional close encounters between comets or the cumulative gravitational pull of the outer planets brings one into the higly elliptical orbit which brings it close to the Sun.
Other comets, characterized as "long-period comets", are found in random orientations with respect to the ecliptic plane. They are thought to originate in a large "cloud" of objects in a region perhaps 50,000 AU from the Sun called the Oort cloud. This image of comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 taken by Tim Puckett of Villa Rica, Ga. USA. It was obtained with a 12" Lx200 working at f/7. This is a 300 second exposure taken on 12-01-95 .
What does an orbit of a comet look like?
Comets orbit the sun, and, in general, their orbits are an elipse with a very long major axis. They make a trip deep into the outer reaches of the solar system, and then, after may years, travel back past the planets to loop around the sun. Then they head back out into the outer solar system again.
Where do the particles of energy of the comet come from?
The particles of energy in a comet mainly come from the solar wind interacting with the comet's nucleus and surrounding coma. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun that affects the comet's ion tail and can cause energy release through processes like ionization and excitation.
Comets are made of ice and dust, so they are not safe or edible for humans to eat. Additionally, comets travel through space at extremely high speeds and temperatures, making them dangerous and impossible to consume.
What occupanies the space between the planets?
First, dust, debris and gases, left over from the formation of the sun and the planets.
Second, gases and radiation produced by the sun (eg. solar wind).
Third, various spacecraft and other technological artifacts, shot into space by humans (eg. the Pioneers and Voyagers launched by NASA).
How do comets meteorites and asteroids differ?
Comets are icy bodies made of dust, rock, and frozen gases that orbit the Sun, meteorites are asteroid fragments that have entered Earth's atmosphere and landed on its surface, and asteroids are rocky bodies that orbit the Sun primarily in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
Do you need carbon dioxide in cells to survive?
No, cells do not need carbon dioxide to survive. In fact, excessive carbon dioxide can be harmful and toxic to cells. Cells require oxygen for respiration, which is essential for producing energy.
How many hours are in a day on a comet?
It all depends upon the rotation of the comet, as the length of a 'day' is determined by the rate of rotation and the position from which it is measured on the comet itself as well as the current position of the comet in relation to the nearest 'sun'. There is no simple answer.
How long does it take asteroids to rotate?
it depends if you mean one that was in the asteroid belt if so then its about 3AU away and if earth is about an AU away from the sun then i would say it takes around 2 to 5 earth years to make one full revolution.
