☄️ Comets

About Comets

Comets are icy bodies that orbit the Sun. When close to the Sun, the heat causes them to release gases and dust, creating a visible atmosphere (coma) and sometimes spectacular tails.

🌟 Key Facts

• Composition: Ice, dust, rock ("dirty snowballs")
• Nucleus Size: Typically 1-10 km
• Coma Size: Up to 1 million km wide
• Tails: Two types — dust tail and ion tail
• Known Comets: Over 3,700
• Origins: Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud
• Famous: Halley's Comet (next visible 2061)

💡 Interesting Facts

• Tails always point away from the Sun (solar wind)
• May have delivered water to early Earth
• Rosetta mission landed on comet 67P in 2014
• Short-period comets come from the Kuiper Belt
• Long-period comets come from the Oort Cloud
• Can develop tails millions of km long
• Ancient people considered them omens