Comets are icy chunks of dust that orbit the sun in elliptical orbits. When near the sun, solar heating causes their icy nuclei to release gas and dust to form visible comas and tails. Comet tails point away from the sun and consist of ion tails made of ionized gases, as well as dust tails pushed by solar radiation pressure. Studying comets helps understand the early solar system and potential comet impacts with Earth.
This is all about comets. Their parts, their origin, and this also have The Top 10 Famous Comets. This also have the definition of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Have a Blast!!!
This PowerPoint discusses the Sun at a high school level. It talks about characteristics, solar activities/events, how energy is created, and many more.
A comet is an icy small Solar System body (SSSB) that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times.
Comets have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from a few years to hundreds of thousands of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt, or its associated scattered disc,[1] which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Longer-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a hypothesized spherical cloud of icy bodies in the outer Solar System. Long-period comets plunge towards the Sun from the Oort cloud because of gravitational perturbations caused by either the massive outer planets of the Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), or passing stars. Rare hyperbolic comets pass once through the inner Solar System before being thrown out into interstellar space along hyperbolic trajectories. Exocomets, comets beyond our solar system, have also been detected and may be common in the Milky Way Galaxy.[2]
Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of a coma or a tail. However, extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids.[3] Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System.[4][5] The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaurs has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets (see asteroid terminology).
As of January 2011 there are a reported 4,185 known comets[6] of which about 1,500 are Kreutz Sungrazers and about 484 are short-period.[7] This number is steadily increasing. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential comet population: the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System may number one trillion.[8] The number visible to the naked eye averages roughly one per year, though many of these are faint and unspectacular.[9] Particularly bright or notable examples are called "Great Comets".
This is all about comets. Their parts, their origin, and this also have The Top 10 Famous Comets. This also have the definition of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Have a Blast!!!
This PowerPoint discusses the Sun at a high school level. It talks about characteristics, solar activities/events, how energy is created, and many more.
A comet is an icy small Solar System body (SSSB) that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times.
Comets have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from a few years to hundreds of thousands of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt, or its associated scattered disc,[1] which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Longer-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a hypothesized spherical cloud of icy bodies in the outer Solar System. Long-period comets plunge towards the Sun from the Oort cloud because of gravitational perturbations caused by either the massive outer planets of the Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), or passing stars. Rare hyperbolic comets pass once through the inner Solar System before being thrown out into interstellar space along hyperbolic trajectories. Exocomets, comets beyond our solar system, have also been detected and may be common in the Milky Way Galaxy.[2]
Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of a coma or a tail. However, extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids.[3] Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System.[4][5] The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaurs has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets (see asteroid terminology).
As of January 2011 there are a reported 4,185 known comets[6] of which about 1,500 are Kreutz Sungrazers and about 484 are short-period.[7] This number is steadily increasing. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential comet population: the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System may number one trillion.[8] The number visible to the naked eye averages roughly one per year, though many of these are faint and unspectacular.[9] Particularly bright or notable examples are called "Great Comets".
A powerpoint presentation on comets. A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail.
2. Introduction
The history of comet watching dates back to 1000
BC from the Chinese records and Chaldea, a place
in present Iraq.
Comets have been regarded as omen, even as
recently as 1986.
Battle of Hastings - 1066
Today Astronomer study Comets from scientific
perspectives, and our understanding of these
fascinating objects have grown tremendously.
3. Dirty Snowballs
Comets are dusty chunk of ice
During each orbit around the sun they
partially vaporize
Have elliptical Orbits
4. Structure of a Comet
Solar heat vaporizes the
nucleus to produce
Coma - Hydrogen gas
Envelope
Dust tail
Ion tail
5. Orbits of Comets
Elliptical in Shape Aphelion distance
Randomly oriented Comet
Sun
Earth
Perihelion distance
6. Comets Tails
Ludwig Biermann proposed the idea of
solar wind to explain comet tails. Mariner 2
spacecraft captured the one such event in
1962.
7. Comet Tails
The solar wind produces three Comet tails that
point away from the motion of the Comet.
The blue ion tails is ionized atoms of CN and C2.
The dust tail is produced when the photons from the
Sun strike the dust particles and produce radiation
pressure on them. This causes the dust particles to drift
away from the comet.
The effect of solar wind on dust particles is less compared to
that on ions. This gives the dust tails a curved shape.
The third tail is made up of Sodium and is usually
invisible to the unaided eyes.
8. Comet Collisions
Comet collision with Earth can bring devastation
to life on Earth.
Jupiter in our solar system is the largest planet and
thus exerts greater gravitational pull on incoming
Comets.
Study of Shoemaker-Levey collision with Jupiter
gave us important facts about Comet collisions.