All_About_Comets

All About Comets INTRODUCTION The picture of a comet is a spectacular object, with a brilliant head and a long tail, streaming across the heavens. Observations of the comet of 1577 by Tycho Brahe demonstrated that comets were more distant than the moon. Some comets are spectacular objects, but definitely the greatest numbers are not very bright, and many do not develop tails. Comets are classed with asteroids, satellites of the planets, and meteoroids. Comets provide a source of information on how the solar system originated, and also provide opportunity to study matter under abnormally physical conditions. The distinguishing feature of a comet is its ability to release large amounts of dust and gas when its nucleus is heated by solar radiation when close to the sun. The material released is lost to the comet, and therefore the lifetimes of comets must be limited. The majority of comets observed today is faint, and have no tail and little coma. While in orbit, comets cover a wide range, moving about the sun in orbits impossible to tell apart from those of minor planets, while others follow paths similar to the earth's orbit plane. Many comets have comets, comet, sun, solar, system, tail, earth, tails, nucleus, dust, come, type, planets, particles, form, very, oort, observations, ions, found, close, years, while, water, space, recent, provide, orbit, one, often, molecules, made, long, information, hit