Comets and stuff

For blog 7 I’ve decided to write about comets. Comets, according to space.com is “an icy body that releases gas or dust”(space.com) Astronomers believe that comets are leftovers of the gas, dust, ice, and rocks that originally formed our solar system. It is believed that comets carried some of the water and organic molecules that now make up life to Earth (space.com).  In order to prove this, the Rosetta mission, sent a probe to land on a comet and is studying how the comet is effected as it approaches the sun. Most comets are believed to inhabit the Oort cloud which makes up the space way outside of Pluto.

As the picture above shows, there are many parts to a comet. The nucleus of the comet is the solid core. This part is mainly made of ice and dust, with some organic material covering the surface of it (space.com). The coma of the comet is formed as a result of the comet getting closer to the sun it is orbiting. As the comet gets closer to the sun, the comet heats up and its surface begins to turn into gas.  The gas particles are then pushed away from the comet by the sun’s radiation causing the dust tail to form. Some charged particles from the sun can also ionize some of the comets gases causing the ion tail to form.

Picture can be found here