Comets and Asteriods
Dominique B
Comets
- comets start out as big chucks of rock and ice, just floating around in the Oort Cloud. Then gravity forms a passing body, such like stars, and this becomes strong enough to pull the ice away from the Oort Cloud and head to the sun. As the ice gets close enough to the sun, the ice melts and this is what we call a comet.
Planetary Orbits
Orbit of a Comet
What is a Comet? Video
What do comets look like?
-The comets that can be seen in the sky without telescopes are unusual because they are the biggest and the brightest. When you look at these comets you van see water, gas and dust.
When and why do comets have tails?
-A combination of solar radiation pressure and solar wind blow away gas and dust from the comets nucleus, forming two separate tails: the ion tail and the dust tail
-This picture was taken with filters that are used to look at the different wavelengths of light.