Comets

Hi Readers! I am with another topic. I thought it would be boring if i have the Metals in Detail parts next to it itself and i also promise you that after few different posts i will bring metals in detail.  But the parts would not be continuing because i will have some new ,interesting topics in between each part. So to cheer you up, Let's see about comets.

What is a comet?

Comets are like asteroids, are small celestial bodies that orbit the sun like other plants.

Parts of Comet

• Nucleus: the nucleus of a comet is composed of ice and rocky material. The nucleus of most comets ranges from about 10 to 100 km in diameter, though they can be as large as 100 km in diameter.
• Coma: the cloud of gases that forms around the nucleus as the coma is heated is know as the coma. These gases are usually a mixture of water vapor, ammonia, carbon dioxide.
• Dust Tail: the dust tail of a comet is composed of gases and tiny dust particles blown away from the nucelus as the comet is heated. The dust tail is the most visible part of a comet.
• Ion Tail: the ion tail is a stream of ionized gases that are blown directly away from the Sun as a result of the comet’s contact with the solar wind.

Famous comets

• Halley’s Comet. In 1705, while studying the orbits of several known comets, Edmond Halley found that the comet observed in 1531, 1607 and 1682 was one in the same. As a result of Halley’s discovery, the comet was named after him. Halley’s Comet is visible every 75 to 76 years.

• Comet Hale-Bopp. Comet Hale-Bopp is best known to most people for the much publicized Californian cult who believed the comet to be a spacecraft. Comet Hale-Bopp was last visible in 1997 and will not be visible again for approximately 2,300 years. It is named after its co-discoverers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.

• Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Shoemaker-Levy 9, also known as SL 9, was a string of comets that was captured by the gravity of Jupiter and subsequently began an orbit about the planet. Shoemaker-Levy 9 is named after its discoverers, Gene Shoemaker, Carolyon Shoemaker and David Levy.

Facts about comets

• Sometimes comets are referred to as “dirty snowballs” or “cosmic snowballs”. This is because they are composed mostly of ice, rock, gas and dust.

• Comets are believed to originate in one of two regions – the theorized Oort Cloud, or the Kuiper Belt found beyond the orbit of Neptune and the dwarf planet Pluto.

• The Oort cloud is an outer region of the Solar System 50,000-150,00 times the distance from the Sun to Earth that is believed to contain dormant comets. Some of the comets that originate here have orbits lasting millions of years.

• There are over 3,000 currently known comets. Scientists believe that there be up to one billion comets in our solar system.

• The Kuiper Belt is ring of dormant comets located just beyond the orbit of Neptune. The comets originating here have orbits lasting hundreds of years or fewer.

• A great comet is one which is bright enough to be visible from Earth without the need for a telescope. Approximately one great comet happens every ten years.

That's all for today's post. See you all in the next week. Until then,

Signing off

with love and passion for science,

Devmitra.V