Comets!

​A comet is a small celestial body made up of Ice, Dust and Gas.

They have a distinct tail that points away from the sun at all times.

Introduction to Comets

Nucleus and the coma

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A comet hast two main parts

Can range from a few meters to tens of kilometers.

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​The nucleus of a comet is a solid icy core

The coma is the gaseous and dusty atmosphere that can extend hundreds of kilomoters.

Multiple Choice

A comet is made mostly of

• Ice, dust and gas

• Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen

• Donner and Blitzen

• Iron Oxide, Carbon Dioxide

Multiple Choice

What are the two main parts of a comet?

• Ice, Dust

• Gas, Rocks

• Coma, Nucleus

• Core, Tail

Multiple Choice

The nucleus of a comet is a _______

• Dirty rotton scoundral

• Solid Icy core

• Hydrogen gas hundreds of Kilometers thick

• A mix of iron and oxides

Comets have been observed in history for 1000's of years.

​Some thought of them as omens or celestial messengers.

Comets in History

In 1705 Sir Edmund Halley predicted a comet that would return 75 years later and it was named after him.

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Multiple Choice

Halleys Comet was last seen in 1986. It comes around every 75 years. When will we see it again?

• 2030

• 2061

• 2086

• 2075

Comets have highly eliptical orbits that take them closer to the sun then far out to outer reaches of the solar system

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Comets and their Orbits

Multiple Choice

A comet has a highly elliptical orbit. It's eccentricity would be closer to 1 or 0?

• 0

• 1

• Neither

The closer a comet gets to the sun, the comet starts to "melt" and gets smaller with each orbit. The tail ALWAYS points away from the sun.

​Why do comets have tails?

Multiple Choice

Why do comets have two tails?

• Because one is dust and one is gas.

• Because the Ice reacts to both liquid and gas.

• Some have one tail, some have two. Depends on the comet structure.

• The sun creates a bigger tail during the daylight.

Multiple Choice

A comets tail grows larger the closer it gets to the sun.

• True

• False