Comets

On the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Norman invasion in the year 1066, which comet is shown?

• Comet McNaught
• Comet Halley
• Comet Hale-Bopp
• Comet 67P/C-G

Which king, in 1066, considered the sighting of a comet as a good omen?

• King Henry VIII
• King Harold II
• King William I
• King Richard I

Which comet was seen by Phil Plait, in 2007, very near the Sun in broad daylight?

• Comet McNaught
• Comet Halley
• Comet Hale-Bopp
• Comet 67P/C-G

Unlike asteroids, which are mostly rock, comets are a more balanced mixture of _____

• metal and ice
• rock and metal
• ice and rock
• rock and minerals

Comets, being composed of frozen gases, rocks, gravel, and dust, are often called _____

• “dirty snowballs”
• “yellow snowballs,”
• “dusty asteroids”
• “dirty asteroids”

As comets progress through their elliptical orbits, they are heated mostly by _____

• the Sun
• friction
• internal molten metals
• convection of gases

The process of ice turning directly into a gas is called _____

• fusion
• convection
• sublimation
• evaporation

In the past, because comets look fuzzy, they’ve been called _____

• “hairy stars”
• “hairy eyeballs”
• “shooting stars”
• “fuzzy navels”

The solid part of a comet is called the _____

• core
• kernal
• nucleus
• coma

What is the gaseous cloud around a comet called?

• aura
• coma
• wisp
• haze